HELCO
People wanting to go solar have to wait
HELCO is leveraging its monopoly to impede solar power in West Hawaii. It is making record quarterly profits. I got a $300 electric bill. I tried to convert to solar, but was told by contractors I have to pay $2,000 for the privilege of joining an indefinite HELCO waiting list for a hookup (or pay $50,000 more for batteries and stay off the grid).
The justification for the HELCO solar hookup wait list is vague and veiled in corporate spin. The privately owned utility says too many houses in my area have solar and it’s not profitable for them to allow more. It has oversupply during the day and houses using the grid at night. (Solar messes with their carbon-based business model wherever it’s popular, inevitably.)
So, it refuses to connect you. It does its best to discourage you from waiting by charging $2,000 upfront, to join a “wait list” for an undefined period, citing vague criteria of “when there’s more houses built.” Like there’s an imminent building boom.
Apparently, the same thing’s going on in Kaloko — and those businesses are closed at night. Then I hear people with friends in the right places jumped the que. What a surprise.
HELCO wants it all its own way; any commitment to renewables is on its terms and only when it’s profitable. Private monopoly utilities should be regulated to accept the inevitable corporate responsibility for maintaining a monopoly, of having some areas less profitable than others, and without forcing me to subsidize them.
Bruce Baron
Waimea
Untrained workers
Why not train them?
So, laid-off factory workers are not up to date on the latest machinery. Employers can just follow the example set by Sam Colt, Henry Ford and William Boeing: Train them. All that whizz bang new stuff comes with training manuals.
In 1941, the U.S. did not have much of an army, but by 1942 we had millions in uniform, those with skills trained those without, and “unskilled housewives” learned to build airplanes.
Ken Obenski
Kaohe
Skateboard helmet law
Shouldn’t it apply to bicyclist, motorcyclist?
Shouldn’t we be keeping some uniformity in our laws? By this I mean requiring helmets for skateboarders while the bicyclist and motorcyclist get a free ride seems overly obtrude to me.
I personally do not care one way or the other, it is still the same old “a law is a law is a law” for everyone. Of course, this whole helmet thing might just be a ruse to gather accolades for one’s self, as politicians are known to do.
Hugo von platen Luder
Holualoa
