The production of palm oil, an imported fuel that Hawaiian Electric Co. hopes to use as an alternative to crude oil, often involves the destruction of rainforests and should not be viewed as a clean alternative fuel, environmentalists say.

Hawaiian Electric says it agrees that the oil's production can be an environmental issue, but says it hopes to work with environmentalists and producers to assure the oil it buys has been produced in a way that avoids the destruction of forests.

The use of palm oil as an alternative fuel will be the subject of a series of community meetings starting today, each of which will include Natural Resources Defense Council specialists, who have been consulting with Ha-waiian Electric on the issue.

Members of the local environmental community say there are no standards for the palm oil market that protect native people in developing countries, and ensure oils are not from plantations for which native forest have been destroyed.

Hawaiian Electric is proposing the construction by 2009 of a 110-megawatt power plant at Campbell Industrial Park, which is designed to burn exclusively biofuels, probably ethanol or palm oil.

The utility also is a partner in a proposal by BlueEarth Biofuels to build by 2009 a 40 million-gallon-per-year facility on Maui that would convert raw oils into a form that can be used like diesel oil in Maui power plants. That project is seeking $59 million in state special-purpose revenue bonds — a reduced-cost source of financing for the biofuel factory.

Environmental groups have called on Gov. Linda Lingle to veto the bill approving the bond issue, but the bill was not included in a list of potential vetoes Lingle released Monday.

UNCERTAINTY PERSISTS

Kahea, the Hawaiian environmental coalition, says there is no way to ensure that palm oil comes from sustainable plantations. In Indonesia and Malaysia, prime sources of palm oil, there is widespread burning and destruction of native forests and native ecosystems, as well as displacement of native peoples.

Hawaiian Electric concedes that palm oil production can involve destruction of natural forest. A proposed Hawaiian Electric policy on dealing with biofuels, developed in conjunction with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says "palm oil cultivation has ... been responsible for widespread clearing of primary tropical forests, draining of peat soils, catastrophic fires in Southeast Asia, and a number of other negative social and environmental impacts."

Hawaiian Electric and BlueEarth say they're counting on a partnership with the NRDC to develop a process for ensuring oil comes from plantations that are sustainably managed and do not destroy native forest.

"We will sign up to procure whatever Natural Resources Defense Council tells us is sustainable. We're going to follow whatever they tell us. I expect they will earmark plantations that have sustainable policies," said BlueEarth co-managing partner Landis Maez.

But environmental groups question whether that's possible.

"In our attempt to provide a sustainable fuel source for Hawai'i, we cannot at the same time destroy another native people's environment and way of life for our benefit," said Vicky Holt Takamine, president of the environmental and cultural watchdog group 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition.

SUSTAINABILITY DENIED

Stephanie Fried, a consultant for Kahea who lived for more than five years in a palm-oil-producing region of Indonesia, said that the production of the oils is a growth industry, and both producers and governments are trying to give the impression that their products are not causing environmental and cultural damage.

"No sustainable scheme for certified sustainable palm oil exists. This has been tried before in timber certification, and it hasn't worked," Fried said. "There is not a sustainable source."

SHORT-TERM SOLUTION

Hawaiian Electric's policy concedes it will be difficult but argues that it's worth trying. Hawaiian Electric spokesman Peter Rosegg said the utility actually hopes to wean itself off imported palm oil in time, replacing it with oils produced locally — perhaps grown on fallow land previously used by sugar growers.

"There are 140,000 acres of fallow land in the state," said BlueEarth's Maez. He said the company is committed to buying feedstock from locally grown crops, whether it's coconut, kukui or an oil crop that has been discussed a lot lately, jatropha.

Rosegg said the company hopes that it can help "jump-start local production of biomass feedstocks to be used to make biodiesel or other renewable replacements for diesel."

Members of the conservation community say they doubt a significant Hawaiian vegetable oil industry can be under way anytime soon.

"In the rush to seek renewable energy sources, we are overlooking the fact that this proposal does not fulfill our goals for self-sufficiency and sustainability," said Rob Parsons of Sierra Club-Maui, in a statement released yesterday.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.