During the Maui Energy Conference, Maui-Tomorrow director, Irene Bowie and Pacific Biodiesel’s Kelly King participated in a panel discussion. While agreeing on the need for more outreach and education for the community, Bowie said private companies, including the utility, have not always been transparent even when they do present their plans to the public and this inhibits trust residents might have with utility projects in the future. She said,
“There needs to be transparency. The community needs to feel that they are getting accurate information. The whole discussion of the undersea cable – what that might be, where it would be placed, what benefits we’d get out of it, what it would cost – all of that has been very unclear.”
As an example of lack of transparency, King cited the Anaergia contract signed by the Mayor that is supposed to reduce amounts going into the landfill. Her company ceased diversions of cooking oil at the landfill once the contract was signed.
King said businesses affected by Anaergia’s proposed project “were never consulted before the (project) was approved,” and several details remain unclear even a year later.
“The public has no idea what this is going to cost us on Maui. We went through months and months of going to (Maui County) Council meetings, sitting as an attendee and listening to presentations and not being able to ask questions, not being able to have that interaction, so we didn’t get the true information.”
Irene Bowie urged residents to get involved in their energy future:
“You have to make the effort to be educated, there needs to be meetings and people need to show up and ask questions. Otherwise, if we’re apathetic, things will happen. The onus really is on the community.”
Hawaiian Electric Industries CEO Connie Lau who oversees HECO and MECO says they are determined to go to liquified natural gas (LNG) as a “bridge fuel”. Organizations such as the Sierra Club oppose the investment required to switch to LNG and are pushing the utilities to go straight to renewable resources and get off fossil fuel. Many are concerned about fracking that LNG entails.
Division of Consumer Advocate Jeff Ono who is supposed to represent the interests of the citizens in the proposed NextEra buyout of HEI, said he has concerns about the loophole he found in the NextEra filing that allows them to raise rates in the near term despite their “promise” not to. Ono asked NextEra to quantify the benefits they’re claiming and expressed doubts that they could provide anything better than the status quo.
According to Civil Beat:
Lau stands to gain $10.7 million if the merger with NextEra goes through. That’s on top of the $5.6 million she made in 2014, up from $3.8 million the prior year but still below the $5.8 million she earned in 2012.
Her earnings pale in comparison though to Robo, who earned $12.2 million in 2014, up from $10.4 million the prior year at NextEra, a far larger company.
