Press Release— Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi Leader Statement on Censorship, Expulsion from JERA “Open” House-

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

August 6, 2026

KAHALUʻU, HAWAI‘I – Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi executive director Wayne Tanaka has  released the following statement regarding his ejection from the JERA “open” house  held on Wednesday, the second of two events intended to inform the public and take  comments on the company’s liquified natural gas (LNG) proposal for Oʻahu. 

“JERA is required to host two transparent ‘open house’ events as part of its application  to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to build the infrastructure needed to sell  us a million tons of liquified methane gas per year. These events were far from  transparent, or open. 

The actions of their hired public relations firm, iQ360, were particularly disgraceful. Last  night, their security guards told me at the outset that sharing an informational handout  with community attendees would result in my expulsion. When I asked Lynn Miyahara,  the lead iQ360 official there, why this was the case, she asked to see a copy of the  handout. When I handed her a copy, they removed me from the ʻopen’ house. 

It was bad enough that they did not want the public to ask informed questions of JERA  representatives. But to then expel a community member from their ‘open’ house for following their own instructions – even the U.S. Navy wouldn’t even stoop that low at  their Red Hill events.  

As a result of this summary expulsion, I was not able to provide comments or ask  questions arising from their first open house.  

For example, at the first event, JERA representatives claimed that imported LNG would  be needed to provide energy for new data centers. But why claim this when next  generation data centers are simply not realistic for Oʻahu? 

With regards to the alleged cost savings, representatives at the iQ360 table all but  admitted that they had no idea if the lowered energy bills they promised to the ‘Coalition  for Hawaiʻiʻs Energy Future’ would actually be realized, saying the public utilities  commission would figure it all out. 

So, have they informed their supposed coalition members that LNG might not result in meaningful cost savings for Oʻahu households, and in fact could exacerbate our energy  costs far more than other alternatives? 

With regards to this JERA project being needed by HECO, Governor Green has been  saying from the start that HECO needed JERA to bail them out after the Lahaina fires.  He even said that a ‘partnership’ agreement between HECO and JERA was imminent at  the beginning of June. But HECO has still refused to partner with JERA and the two  companies are now at ‘war,’ as CivilBeat reported.  

iQ360 representatives on Monday downplayed this conflict, but what do JERA representatives have to say about why HECO does not seem to need them as  desperately as the Governor has been making out?  

Finally, there is a massive amount of LNG that we would need to buy for this to all  pencil out, much more than we would need to power our grid as we continue to develop  our renewable supply. JERA representatives claimed that we could just sell excess LNG  to ships from China and other places. However, the 0.4 million tons of LNG per year we would need to sell to the shipping industry would require something like 15 PASHA sized ships, filling up their entire fuel tanks every week from an offshore facility – more  than two ships a day. How is this even logistically possible, nevermind the maritime  traffic, national security, and invasive species issues, among many others?  

Unfortunately, I was unable to get clarification on these and other questions that  lingered or arose from the first ‘open’ house. 

Governor Green should condemn this kind of bullying and censorship that only  discourages the public from learning about the JERA proposal he has endorsed.  

JERA should re-do their open houses to be truly accessible to the public, and to  embrace the robust public engagement that is the very purpose of these events. 

And the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should ensure that both the letter and  spirit of its ‘open’ house requirements are met. 

Any less would be a failure of transparency, of free and open public discourse, and of  our democratic system of governance.” 

Video recordings of the expulsion at the second “open” house event and some of the  discussions at the first event are available upon request. 

An earlier press release on the Governor’s violation of the public records law regarding  his administration’s communications with iQ360 and JERA can be found at bit.ly/greenjera. 

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