Sunday, March 6, 2011

Community Concerns About the Biofuel Project

People I know stop me to talk about the biofuel project quite a lot these days. Some of the comments that they have voiced to me:

The honeybees in Ka'u are just starting to recover. Will the feedstock be grown using pesticides? If so this could have an effect on my honeybees and my livelihood producing honey. What assurances do we have that this will be taken seriously?

Do the project planners understand that they cannot just strip the fertility out of the soil again? It has taken this long to build anything back up after sugarcane. What are their plans for maintaining fertility in the soil?

If, as stated at the County Council meeting, this project will provide 200 permanent jobs and it takes 20 people to run the plant, what exactly are the other 180 jobs going to consist of?

I want to support biofuels but I wish I could be more enthusiastic about this project.

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