The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission opened a proceeding to examine energy equity in December 2022.
“Energy equity refers to the goal of achieving equity in both the social and economic participation in the energy system, while also remediating social, economic, and health burdens on those historically harmed by the energy system.”
The Public Utilities Commission and Hawaiian Electric Company want to engage with communities before formal processes begin, to determine what types of renewable energy projects should be built where. They hope this will lead to less interventions in the formal proceedings. The top-down approach being utilized will not lead to less intervention.
Hawaiian Electric fought and lost the 30-year Wa`ahila Ridge transmission line fight (1973-2002). To attempt to control the future, Hawaiian Electric created and ran the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum. No one who had ever opposed Hawaiian Electric was permitted to attend.
The Hawai`i Public Utilities Commission appears to be headed down a similar rabbit hole. The Public Utilities Commission is relying on the ratepayer-financed Energy Equity Hui to shape policy. The business-government controlled entity has a few community members but none who represents an organization that intervened and participated in a renewable energy power purchase agreement. The private meetings are by invitation only and are not publicly announced.
The Public Utilities Commission is relying on the Energy Equity Hui`s Request for Proposal Workstream Subgroup, led by Hawaiian Electric and a consultant with many governmental contracts. Again, no community members with intervention experience.
The lack of technical expertise by community members, and the lack of independent resource advisors to counter utility claims, means that community members must trust the utility on its technical and financial assertions. By contrast, intervenors in contested case proceedings question utility assumptions masquerading as facts.
Hawaiian Electric and the Public Utilities Commission assert that community values are factored into the selection of projects. The proof is hidden in black boxes. Even under a confidentiality shield, Hawaiian Electric will not provide any evidence that supports their allegation.
Hawaiian Electric has also manufactured artificial boundaries around future Renewable Energy Zones that will direct projects to preconceived locations.
Communities might be told, what compensation do you want for a project in your neighborhood.
Life of the Land is the most prolific intervenor in Public Utilities Commission history, having been in more than 60 contested case proceedings, including more than a dozen HECO-developer power purchase proceedings involving wind, solar, biofuel, and biomass projects. We submitted the first expert testimony on climate change, environmental justice, and equity in Commission proceedings.
Some developers are willing to engage in meaningful two-way dialogue. But some aren`t. They prefer to steamroll projects or work political connections. Nothing being proposed in the energy equity proceeding diminishes the need to intervene in future Public Utilities Commission proceedings.