Extracts from Pacific Business News Pattern “Energy stays committed to wind farm“

(I Aloha Moloka’i disputes Pattern’s low meeting attendance numbers that are quoted in this article.)

Despite a series of contentious meetings on Molokai this week, San Francisco-based Pattern Energy won’t be fleeing Hawaii, according to David Parquet, the wind-energy developer’s director of development for special projects.

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“There’s still a long way to go,” Parquet told PBN. “Residents still want to know what the impacts are. As we go through this we are seeing people getting engaged on questions. They aren’t saying ‘yes,’ but they are engaged with us.”

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In interviews leading up to the meetings, local residents and community leaders indicated to PBN that resistance to the Big Wind project had grown increasingly widespread and organized since First Wind’s departure.

Several people noted that opposition to the project was intensified becasue Molokai Ranch, which has a history of tension with the community, was supporting Pattern Energy. The developer has signed a lease option with the ranch for 11,000 acres.