Hawaiʻi Island Group Report
ESPCs, PPPs, and free money by Steve Holmes
Faced with limited funding and an inability to borrow money, you would think Hawaiʻi County would jump at the chance to access free money for public infrastructure needs like energy efficiency projects, solid waste and wastewater management. But, so far, not so much.
Energy savings performance contracts (ESPC) would allow a no-upfront cost to retrofit county facilities and make them more energy efficient, while creating jobs. Hawaiʻi currently leads the nation in per capita ESPC financed projects. It is a plug and play process with a pre-approved list of Energy Service Companies to do the work. They provide the financing and manage the work while guaranteeing the savings. What a deal—millions in potential savings to taxpayers!
Solar can also be funded using an ESPC. Why pay high HELCO electric rates at County facilities when investors can utilize tax credits and we pay half the cost? The Honolulu Airport is installing thousands of solar panels using an ESPC, moving us toward our goal of 100% renewables. Hawaiʻi County has done solar on some facilities , but could do much more.
At the West Hawaiʻi Landfill, methane gas is flared off. An ESPC could create a bioreactor cell within the landfill to increase gas production, that could then be converted to green hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. We could bring in wet sludge from treatment plants and add in green waste from landscaping firms that haul to the landfill for disposal. Waste Management, which runs the landfill, actually has experience in doing this. Seems like an easy package to put together and an ESPC could pull it all together. Why flare off a resource when it could be put to good use?
The other option is public private partnerships (PPP). Money is actually pretty cheap these days, so we can work with private companies and leverage their access to tax credits and other incentives unavailable to local government. More bang for the buck. Water recycling is a business opportunity waiting to happen at the Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant. Rather than dumping into a hole in the ground and polluting our coastal waters, we could bring in a company that does water recycling, which pays for itself. Water recycling provides a drought proof source of water and reduces the stress on high elevation wells run by Department of Water Supply that keep breaking down. This approach would extend sustainable yield for future generations. It also beats floating bonds and sticking taxpayers with twenty years of interest payments to pay for the R-1 treatment upgrade and the necessary pipeline delivery system. It all just seems so logical. So easy.
We need your voices to be raised. Speak out in favor of ESPCs and PPPs to solve infrastructure needs, reduce pollution, and create jobs, while saving taxpayers money.
Vote 'yes' for both open space charter amendments on the ballot for November 3 by Debbie Hecht
Charter Amendment for Staff - This proposed charter amendment will allow the 2% Open Space Fund to pay a staff person to dedicate their time to the 2% Land Fund Program. The goal is to have:
more properties purchased,
more matching funds obtained, and
more maintenance funds granted to the nonprofits who’s responsibility it is to care for lands purchased with 2% Land Funds.
Charter Amendment for Maintenance Fund - This proposed charter amendment will allow the nonprofits who care for lands obtained with 2% Land Fund money to increase their good work. The Stewardship Grant process will be improved by:
Moving the administration of the maintenance fund to the Department of Finance from the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Streamlining, and further defining and expediting the Stewardship Grant process.
Giving the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Commission and the Department of Finance Department oversight for Stewardship Grants.
Allowing the nonprofits to build, rent or lease toilet facilities, paths, trails and small structures for education purposes or the storage of equipment.
Allowing the nonprofit stewardship groups to pay workers for their duties caring for the land.
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After 10 months of meetings with the Charter Commission our hard work has paid off. Big mahalo to all of you who wrote emails and came to testify. Your participation resulted in these two charter amendments we hope will improve the 2% Land Fund Program. So far the 2% Land Fund has provided more than 7,700 acres of open space and parklands that will be enjoyed by citizens of the Big Island forever!
After the ballots are sent out we will be able to tell you the Ballot Measure Number and the exact wording, to make sure you vote for the two open space charter amendments.
Can we add you to our email list to make sure you get this information? If interested, please email Debbie Hecht
Submitted by Debbie Hecht, Campaign Manager for the Save our Lands Citizens’ Committee since 2006. For in depth information on acquisitions click here.
National Drive Electric Week Coming to Hawaiʻi
Transportation puts more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other sector in the U.S. economy. In Hawaiʻi, the percentage of transportation-related pollution is higher, representing an excess of 40% of all local greenhouse gas emissions.
Hawaiʻi is now following a global trend in the electrification of transportation, moving off of fossil fuels. If you are curious about all-electric vehicle alternatives to your gas guzzler car, SUV, or truck, then you won’t want to miss the 10th Annual National Drive Electric Week (September 26 - October 4), which promises to answer your questions and excite anyone interested driving electric.
Locally, this year’s National Drive Electric Week event will be hosted by the newly formed Hawaiʻi EV Association, a grassroots, multi-island, all-volunteer organization dedicated to helping Hawaiʻi accelerate its transition to zero-emission transportation. For more information you can visit: hawaiiev.org
Saturday, October 3rd, 9-11am: EV Transformation and Adoption
Future of Driving Electric in Hawaiʻi – How EV Are Transforming Transportation
The EV-Clean Energy Connection
Speed Bumps to Adoption (Owners, Utility, Legislators, Dealers)
For more information, contact Bill Bugbee, Hawaiʻi Electric Vehicle Association
Hu Honua and Greenhouse Gas Math by Steve Holmes
Hu Honua rather interestingly became a participant in the Public Utilities Commission docket on the Puna Geothermal Venture. In their filings, they sought to force HELCO to disclose the retirement schedule for fossil fuel power plants on Hawaiʻi Island. They want to know this because it could cause curtailment of their production and a subsequent loss of revenue. But, it raises a big question about how they calculate greenhouse gas emissions, in two ways. They don’t know their own run time and they don’t know what emissions from fossil generators they are offsetting. It is a catch-22. You can’t accurately do the math without knowing these critical parameters. This is especially important since they lost at the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court and they were remanded back to the PUC for better analysis.
HELCO is keeping secret its retirement schedule, and has pushed back in a recent filing where Hu Honua is seeking information inappropriately through the PGV docket, and as such exceeding the parameters laid out by the PUC for their participation in the docket.
Hu Honua has tried to have it both ways in the docket by throwing shade at PGV as being subject to closure due to eruptive activity (hence unreliable) and then in the same filings taken credit for the combined output of the two power plants to offset emissions from existing fossil generation. But you really can’t have it both ways.
Honua Ola: Caveat Emptor by Cory Harden
Honua Ola, the almost-completed tree-burning power plant in Pepeʻekeo, is pulling out all stops after a Public Utilities Commission (PUC) decision in July. The PUC rejected an agreement between Hawaiian Electric and Honua Ola because Honua Ola’s electricity would cost far more than electricity from solar projects.
Honua Ola is firing back with a motion to the PUC for reconsideration and an open letter signed by a number of state senators, plus newspaper and Facebook ads. They are also threatening to sue HELCO, HECO, and HEI for over half a billion dollars. (Yes, that’s a “b”). This could hurt the utilities’ bond rating and jack up residents’ electric bills.
Knowledgeable observers say the PUC is unlikely to cave in. But that hasn’t stopped Honua Ola’s misleading claims. For example:
Honua Ola claims their “scientific public opinion study” found large majorities of residents “were favorable toward the project.” But they haven’t yet answered questions about the survey, such as how surveyors described the plant to respondents.
Honua Ola claims a “traffic study has determined that impact will be minimal” from logging trucks. But the study is so old (nine years) that the State is calling for a revision. No wonder. There may be five or six trucks per hour, 12 hours a day. About half of them will be making left turns, with traffic whizzing by at 45 miles an hour. And will they be like the old cane trucks lumbering down the highway? Long lines of frustrated drivers followed, dodging falling debris and finally passing, but not always safely.
Honua Ola claims “New eucalyptus trees will be continuously planted and grown, increasing the amount of forested land.” But during negotiations with Kamehameha Schools a couple of years ago, about harvesting 3,000 acres of eucalyptus, Kamehameha Schools said not all of the land would be replanted.
Honua Ola claims it will be carbon neutral. But Henry Curtis of Life of the Land, who won a Hawaiʻi Supreme Court case on Honua Ola last year, concludes it “would not be carbon neutral if it was ever built.”
Honua Ola claims it would provide “reliable, firm energy continuously, 24/7...” But its 2017 Power Purchase Agreement included a “full plant outage” for maintenance two weeks every year, and four weeks every fifth year. Where would the backup power come from? And consider that solar power is now available almost all the time, because of advances in battery storage and the ability to tap into multiple solar power facilities.
Honua Ola says they kept building because in July 2017 the PUC ordered them to complete the plant. But the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court voided the Power Purchase Agreement with HELCO in May 2019. Why did Hu Honua keep building, with no guarantee anyone would buy its power? And no permits yet for its injection wells?
Further muddying the waters, the PUC reported receiving e-mails in support of Honua Ola that were sent by someone other than the actual account holder.
Takeaway: the issues surrounding Honua Ola are complex, making claims difficult to evaluate. Caveat emptor!
Mauna Kea update by Deborah Ward
The University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents recently approved a management restructuring plan promulgated by Dr Greg Chun, despite significant opposition from Mauna Kea Management Board, Mauna Kea Observatories, numerous community members, faculty and students (there was NO SUPPORT). The fact that the approved plan was submitted to the Board of Regents without an opportunity for the Mauna Kea Management Board to review the document before submission confirms and mirrors the irony and outrage felt by Native Hawaiian rightholders, Kahu Ku Mauna members, kiaʻi protectors, the Office of Mauna Kea Management Environment Committee, environmental allies such as KĀHEA, Sierra Club, and other members of the public that have pointed out for years that community input is shrugged off.
The 2020 Mauna Kea Master Plan is being developed, and currently includes the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), with the concurrent promise that five facilities will be decommissioned. Should the TMT board decide to use the Canary Island site instead, the decommissioning of three facilities might not transpire before the end of the lease in 2033. This uncertainty is weighing heavily on the existing telescope facilities.
The University of California has described a request to acquire National Science Foundation funding for $1 billion to build the $2.4 billion TMT. However, use of federal funds will require the development of a Federal Environmental Impact Statement, with Section 106 consultation, that might take 3-5 years to complete. The National Science Foundation has initiated an “Informal Outreach Process for the Thirty Meter Telescope”.
Once a review of compliance regarding the Comprehensive Management Plan is complete, the University expects to float its Land Authorization Environmental Impact Statement, in hopes of extending its current lease beyond the 2033 expiration date it agreed to in the 1960’s.
The Intermediate Court of Appeals is also reviewing a suit brought by Mauna Kea protectors arguing that when the Board of Land and Natural Resources issued its Notice to Proceed authorizing the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory to initiate construction of the TMT, that decision triggered a requirement that the Board compel the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory to post a bond. A 1977 development plan says observatories should post a bond to cover the cost of construction. The 2009 Comprehensive Management Plan plan says observatories should post a bond for decommissioning. Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory did neither.
Meanwhile on the mauna, the Visitor Information Station remains closed, and visitors are discouraged from driving to the summit.