Hawaii’s last sugar plantation to be biofuel ‘lab’ – BusinessWeek

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By AUDREY McAVOY
HONOLULU

Hawaii’s last sugar plantation could start producing jet fuel for the Navy.

Federal agencies on Wednesday announced they would spend millions of dollars to study producing advanced biofuels from sugarcane grown at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar’s fields on Maui.

The Office of Naval Research is budgeting $2 million annually for the project through 2015, with a focus on producing diesel and jet fuel from sugar.

The Department of Energy is spending $2 million a year to have the University of Hawaii study energy crop development and energy conversion technologies.

HC&S General Manager Chris Benjamin says his company will be a "working laboratory" to test the potential of biofuel production.

"This federal funding represents a vote of confidence in Hawaii and in the future of HC&S," Benjamin said in a news release. "It is a significant step toward our goal of transforming HC&S into a large-scale energy farm, playing a key role in securing Hawaii’s energy future."

The company, a unit of Alexander & Baldwin Inc., said its vast fields, access to water, farming infrastructure and labor force make it an ideal candidate to produce biofuels on a large scale.

HC&S has long diverted water from East Maui streams to irrigate its fields in arid Central Maui. But this practice is currently facing challenges.

Taro farmers have petitioned the state’s Commission on Water Resource Management to restore more flow to the streams, and prevent HC&S from diverting its usual volumes of water. The case is pending before the water commission.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who met Wednesday with HC&S and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials about the project, said the research could benefit biofuel development efforts not just in Hawaii but also across the country.

"The sugar industry’s infrastructure in Hawaii … will be put to good use producing a variety of biofuels," said Inouye in a statement issued by the department.

Hawaii’s last sugar plantation to be biofuel ‘lab’ – BusinessWeek

HC&S studying future as biofuels plantation – The Maui News

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By Chris Hamilton

POSTED: April 7, 2010

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PUUNENE — Within the next five years to 10 years, Hawaii’s last sugar producer, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. could be out of the topsy-turvy granulated sugar business and making much-desired biofuels, company, federal and state officials announced Wednesday afternoon.

The U.S. Department of Energy, though the University of Hawaii, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Navy will receive $6 million annually to help HC&S determine whether it is feasible to convert the more than 130-year-old company into an "energy farm," or a high-tech producer of renewable fuels, said HC&S General Manager Chris Benjamin at a news conference.

It would be a dramatic transformation, participants said. The move could preserve hundreds of agricultural jobs on Maui for decades to come and potentially lead to tens of millions of dollars in capital improvement investments to the aging sugar mill.

"This (funding) could help define a new future for HC&S as an alternative energy producer," Benjamin said.

Leading Role for HC&S in Hawaii Renewable Energy Research, Biofuels — Federal Funding to be Provided – DailyFinance

Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) today announced that it is at the center of significant new Hawaii-based research initiatives on biofuels, working closely with the University of Hawaii and various federal agencies to realize the promise of expanded production of clean, renewable energy.

In today’s announcement, HC&S noted support from Sen. Daniel K. Inouye in detailing annual federal funding of at least $4 million that will be made available through two separate programs, one funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the other by the Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR), to conduct research at HC&S.

The DOE funding of $2 million annually will be directed to research on energy crop development and energy conversion technologies to be conducted by the University’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR). The ONR funding, also $2 million annually, will support complementary crop and technology assessments, as well as an evaluation of long-term resource requirements for biomass production. In announcing the ONR portion of the funding, US Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said the USDA would direct the research initiatives, providing $2 million per year through 2015, to help Hawaii accelerate sustainable biofuel feedstock production.

MLP Insider Buy/Sell: MAUI LAND & PINEAPPLE INC SEC Filings

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP OF SECURITIES

Filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Section 17(a) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 or Section 30(h) of the Investment Company Act of 1940

Name and Address of Reporting Person: Haruki Warren H

Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol: MAUI LAND & PINEAPPLE CO INC [MLP]

Relationship of Reporting Person(s) to Issuer:
_X__ Director__X__ Officer (give title below)
Chairman & Interim CEO

Title of Security: Common Stock
Transaction Date: 04/05/2010
Amount: 1,630
Price: $6.24
Amount of Securities Beneficially Owned Following Reported Transaction(s): 76,360

MLP: MAUI LD & PINEAPPLE INC SEC Filings

Hawaii coffee production hits five-year low in 2009 | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Reduced prices and yields brought the value of Hawai’i coffee production down last season to a five-year low, according to a government report.

The Hawai’i field office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said farm-level sales of Hawai’i coffee totaled $25.6 million in the 2009-10 season. That was down from $29.6 million in the prior season and was the lowest since $19.9 million in 2004-05. The recent high was $37.3 million in 2005-06.

Farmers harvested 6,300 acres of coffee last season, which was second most in the last six years. But farmers obtained an average $3.20 per pound for their crop, which was down from $3.40 in the prior season and a recent high of $4.55 in 2005-06. Yield also was also relatively low at 8 million pounds of dried beans, down from 8.7 million pounds in the prior season.

Hawaii coffee production hits five-year low in 2009 | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

Maui Land & Pineapple Company Inc. News – The New York Times

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Maui Land & Pineapple Company Inc. News – The New York Times

CQ Politics | Gubernatorial Outlook in the Net-Zero Remap States: Part II

This is final segment of our series on this year’s gubernatorial races and how they will affect congressional redistricting, which will take place after the this year’s census is completed. With a focus on seats up in 2010 now held by Republicans in states that are projected to keep the same number of House seats following reapportionment, we hope this will be a little light reading for your holiday weekend.

Light, at least, compared to the previous segment on the races for Democratic-held seats in the “net-zero” reapportionment states. There were 16 of those, and only 11 states in the GOP column that are detailed in the roundup below.

Last week, we looked at the redistricting implications of gubernatorial races in states that are projected by political data analysis firm Election Data Services (EDS) – based on July 2009 Census Bureau population estimates – to either gain seats or lose seats in reapportionment. All told, we have looked at all 43 states that are projected to have more than one district and therefore must gear up for redistricting.

The remaining seven states, the nation’s least populous, have the minimum of one at-large House seat guaranteed to each state in the Constitution. There are races for governor in four of those states: Alaska, where Republican incumbent Sean Parnell is running; South Dakota, where Republican Gov. Michael Rounds cannot run because of term limits; Vermont, where Republican Gov. Jim Douglas is retiring; and Wyoming, where Democratic incumbent Dave Freudenthal is term limited. Current incumbents in Delaware (Democrat Jack Markell ), Montana (Democrat Brian Schweitzer ) and North Dakota (Republican John Hoeven , who is running this year for Senate) were elected in 2008 and their seats are not up for election until 2012.

Republican “Net-Zero” States

Hawaii: Hawaii is one of a handful of states in which a bipartisan commission performs congressional redistricting. So this year’s contest to succeed term-limited Gov. Linda Lingle (R) will have no remap impact. It is, nonetheless, an interesting race. Democrats, who have generally dominated politics in Hawaii since it became a state in 1959, will be trying to reclaim the governor’s office won in 2002 and 2006 by the moderate Lingle, and will decide between two longtime political arch rivals in the Sept. 18 primary, former Rep. Neil Abercrombie (who in February resigned his seat to run) and Honolulu Mayor [@url@Mufi Hannemann@http://www.mufihannemann.com/@. Republican Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, who is trying to prove Lingle’s wins were no fluke, is expected to easily outrun his less-known primary opponents.

Hawaii crops, algae may get funded for military biofuel | The Honolulu Advertiser

honadv

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Navy are hoping to jumpstart the growth of crops and algae in Hawai’i that can be used for military fuel as part of an aggressive drive by the Pentagon to reduce its dependence on foreign oil and increase renewable energy sources.

An industry forum Tuesday and Wednesday at Marine Corps Base Hawaii will bring together government officials and potential biofuel companies from Hawai’i and the Mainland. As many as 40 companies and 250 people are expected to attend.

The Navy and the Agriculture Department want to evaluate the use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to set up biofuel projects in Hawai’i "as soon as possible."

How much funding remains unclear, but Hawai’i was selected for the initial collaboration between the two federal entities "because Hawai’i’s energy costs are among the highest in the nation and imported oil supplies 90 percent of the state’s energy," the USDA said. "A viable agricultural sector in Hawai’i can enhance Hawai’i’s energy security, and energy projects like those anticipated by the Navy’s needs can help rural economies."