What is the point, really, of a law to promote energy independence if it means we have to import another kind of fuel?

There is none. That's why it's silly to insist on meeting an April 2 deadline that we set for ourselves by starting to buy 3 million gallons of ethanol each month from some other state. That's what it would take to fulfill a mandate for fuel composed of at least 10 percent ethanol to be available.

Everyone can support the basic concept. The state is trying to push the development of a local industry to produce ethanol, the cleaner-burning fuel additive that would allow Hawai'i to cut the amount of oil we must must bring in.

The idea is that it's better to control as much of the needed energy supply at the local level than letting offshore markets dictate the terms to us. Ethanol — which can be produced through processing of sugarcane — could become the renewable resource of the future, renewing agriculture at the same time.

Good idea, as long as the ethanol is really ours.

The deadline is part of the state's commitment to this program, but it's obvious that the embryonic industry needs more time than the 18 months the law gave it.

The real solution is not to make a rule and follow it over the cliff, but to examine what barriers the Hawai'i ethanol enterprises have encountered in establishing production plants. Among the problems, say executives, are engineering challenges and financing and land-acquisition delays.

Helping them overcome those hurdles, and extending the production deadline to a point that seems practical, should be the state's mission.