Moloka’i Dispatch is reporting that jobs from Big Wind on Moloka’i will only be about ten or twenty local jobs and that virtually all the jobs created will go to imported mainland workers. Molokai Properties president and CEO Peter Nicholas reports that the State is talking about condemning his land to do the Big Wind […]
Big Wind Met with Resistance on Moloka’i
Moloka’i residents opposed to Big Wind took over Pattern Energy’s meeting on Moloka’i last night (June 21, 2011). According to one vehement I Aloha Moloka’i (IAM) participant: “Last night we had the first of 3 meetings with Pattern and Bio-Logical Capital. Maunaloa residents and IAM members took over a packed meeting in Maunaloa Town and […]
Friends of Lana’i: Big Wind
By ROBIN KAYE The June 14 article about Maui County’s powerful letter to the Public Utilities Commission – and the county’s decision to intervene in Hawaiian Electric Co.’s request to be reimbursed by ratepayers to the tune of $4 million – contained a number of inaccuracies. The article identifies two organizations that were denied intervention […]
Star Advertiser: Big Wind Must Be Transparent
The attempt by Honolulu-based Life of the Land to intervene so it could gain access to all the information about the project has been rejected by the PUC. The environmental organization’s executive director, Henry Curtis, said his attempt to obtain public documents from the state has been resisted. Curtis said the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism said it would cost Life of the Land $15,000 for photocopies of all its Big Wind material, and the PUC would charge $8,000 for copies of its documents.
PUC Chairwoman Hermina Morita says it complied with the law on Curtis’s request, which asked for an overabundance of information (see today’s Letters to the Editor), and that anyone can view the commission’s website.
But while the PUC is not bound by the information disclosure standards of other state agencies, it needs to be acutely aware that public accessibility and understanding is crucial to what would be the priciest, most controversial public utility project in the state’s history, even at this pre-EIS stage. The movers and shakers need to ensure comprehensive openness as the state environmental impact statement process unfolds with an abundance of hearings and thorough public scrutiny.
Maui County: Prevent HECO Charging Ratepayers for Big Wind Planning
Earlier this summer, Hawaiian Electric asked for a new docket, 2011-0112, to allow it to be reimbursed for $3.9 million spent on planning. County Energy Coordinator Doug McLeod says the total is closer to $7 million, much of that from federal stimulus funds, and the project seems to be much further along than the public […]
Consumer Advocate Says Big Wind Arguments Not Convincing But…
Hawaii consumer advocate Jeffrey Ono, says HECO’s arguments for why Castle & Cooke can cede 200 megawatts of its wind-energy allocation on Lanai to San Francisco-based Pattern Energy to develop a wind farm on Molokai are not convincing. However, Ono says that the project is in the best interests of the public, thus leaving the […]