A federal judge in Dallas has ruled in favor of Hawaiian Electric Co.'s request to have a lawsuit filed against it in Texas by BlueEarth Biofuels LLC transferred to U.S. District Court here.

The lawsuit was filed in October over a now stalled plan to jointly develop a biodiesel production facility on Maui, with BlueEarth alleging HECO and its Maui Electric Co. subsidiary had refused to work in good faith to develop the project.

Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit was Aloha Petroleum Ltd., which had separately been discussing the operation of a fuel storage facility on Maui for biodiesel. HECO and Aloha Petroleum had requested the case be moved here because their operations are in Hawai'i.