BlueEarth Biofuels to produce voluntary environmental impact statement for Hawaiian biodiesel plant

BlueEarth Biofuels will prepare a voluntary environmental impact statement in response to criticism of its earlier pledge to do so only if required. The company, which is developing a 40 million gallon biodiesel refinery at Waena, believed it was not covered by a state law requiring oil refineries to produce environmental impact statements, saying that the law covered petroleum based oil refineries. The Sierra Club and Maui Tomorrow welcomed the news.

The project, slated for Waena on the Kahului side of the Island of Maui, has been hailed as a potential part of the solution to Hawaii’s imported fuel dependence, and criticized as a potential polluter of the resort island.

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