Proposed biofuel plant surprises some

Some $59 million in bonds may go to untested firm

Honolulu Weekly
April 18, 2007
by Ian Lind

BlueEarth Biofuels LLC is just a step away from passage of Senate Bill 1718, which would authorize the issuance of $59 million in special purpose revenue bonds to plan, build and have a major biodesiel plant operating on Maui by 2009 in cooperation with Maui Electric Company (MECO) and its parent, Hawaiian Electric.

The plan drew quick opposition from environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Hawai'i Audubon Society, Life of the Land and others because it would rely on imported palm oil as a feed source, a cash crop linked to deforestation in many developing countries.

BlueEarth's biodiesel proposal came as a surprise to most observers, and word of the project didn't hit the news until legislative hearings on the bond authorization began early this year.

Critics of the proposal, such as Kelly King of Pacific Biodiesel, which recycles cooking oil into diesel fuel, wonder about the viability of the BlueEarth proposal because very little public information about either the company or its principals can be found.

Federal court records show that in June 2006, BlueEarth's managing partner, Landis Maez, was at the end of an unsuccessful three year court battle with Chevron, his former employer, over bonuses and commissions he believed were due. Over the course of the lawsuit, Maez, who was laid off by Chevron in 2003, had cashed out his pension and 401(k) plan, depleted his savings and described himself as "living paycheck to paycheck."

Chevron prevailed in court and, to add insult to injury, demanded Maez reimburse the company for $374,386 in attorneys' fees.

His partner in BlueEarth, Robert H. Wellington III, is president of Wellington Associates, Inc., which provides investment banking and financial advisory services. Wellington's company is registered to do business at the address of his residence in Frisco, Texas.

"They (BlueEarth) don't have a huge corporate structure, for sure," acknowledged Hawaiian Electric spokesman Peter Rosegg.

The company is represented in Hawai'i by public relations consultant Ray Sweeney, who is also its registered lobbyist. Maez's wife, Vicky, has handled the firm's accounting from the couple's home in Phoenix, Ariz., although they are in the process of relocating to Honolulu.

Hawaiian Electric officials' testimony has touted BlueEarth's experience in a number of mainland energy projects and distributed fact sheets listing prior projects attributed to the company, but in a telephone interview last week Maez said he had worked on those projects while employed by large companies like Chevron and Arizona Public Service.

"This is our first step outside the corporate umbrella," Maez said.

Rosegg said Hawaiian Electric had been unsuccessfully seeking investment partners and expertise for a Maui project for "at least four years" before being introduced to Maez and Wellington by the Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns & Co.

BlueEarth was the first company to agree to build and operate a plant on Maui, where HECO says the biodiesel is most needed, Rosegg said.

"Bear Stearns was looking to invest in biofuels and decided these guys (Maez on the technical side, Wellington on the financial side) were the ones to do it with and Hawai'i would be a good place," Rosegg said.

But Maez said Bear Stearns is no longer associated with the BlueEarth project.

BlueEarth says that without corporate backing, it can cap its profits "in the high single digits," reducing costs for Maui Electric and its customers.

But as BlueEarth's first solo project, the company is trying to bite into a very big piece of business. The Maui plant would initially be larger than all but one of the 108 biodiesel plants currently operating in the United States, according to Biodiesel Magazine. When fully developed, the facility would have 20 percent more capacity than the largest of the 46 plants now under construction on the mainland.

see related stories:
Pacific Biodiesel has 'momentum' - without MECO
My biodiesel baby: Maui's alt-energy future?
$61M biodiesel plant outlined