We are proud of Gov. David Ige’s strong stand in favor of a 100 percent clean, 100 percent local energy future for Hawaii. That’s the only way Hawaii can prevent catastrophic climate change, free ourselves from our $5 billion annual addiction to imported oil, and empower consumers to reduce their electric bills.
The proposed buyout of Hawaiian Electric by Florida-based NextEra would take a huge step backward from that goal.
Just last month, the governor signed into law the goal of 100 percent renewable electricity for Hawaii by the year 2045. He and the state Legislature showed bold, visionary leadership in making Hawaii the first state in the nation to set such an ambitious target.
Now, the $4.3 billion question that the state Public Utilities Commission needs to decide is whether NextEra is the right choice to do the job.
The PUC’s ongoing review is essentially like a hiring process for a new boss of our state’s main electric utility. Naturally, we want to know the experience, background and record of NextEra, the current candidate for that position. We want to know its plan for Hawaii and each of our unique islands. Maybe most of all, we want to know about the “fit” in terms of character and social and cultural values.
Unfortunately, after reviewing NextEra’s proposal and its track record, we believe NextEra fails on all counts.
NextEra’s utility business has almost zero experience or accomplishments in clean energy. In Florida, it relies predominantly and increasingly on fossil fuels like gas and coal, as well as nuclear energy, none of which will achieve Hawaii’s 100 percent renewable goal.
Further, NextEra aggressively campaigns against customer-based clean energy like rooftop solar and energy efficiency. Only 0.01 percent of its customers in the Sunshine State have rooftop solar.
NextEra even fights against helping customers to save energy and money through energy efficiency. Instead, it is pursuing risky and costly nuclear plants and fracking for gas, passing the costs onto its captive customers — and now they want to pass those costs along to us.
NextEra has already refused to share any plan to achieve the 100 percent renewable goal, insisting that it will tell us only after the PUC approves the takeover. Its position is totally backward. And it begs the question, “who is going to control whom?”
NextEra also does not fit with our unique local community. It is based in Florida, 5,000 miles from Hawaii, and has $17 billion in revenues, 900 subsidiaries, and employees across 27 states and Canada. Hawaii would make up a tiny portion of their portfolio. If we think changing HECO is hard, influencing NextEra will be virtually impossible.
Indeed, NextEra is notorious for throwing around its political weight in Florida with extensive spending on lobbying, political contributions and advertising. It dominates the political scene to make sure nothing gets in the way of its monopoly business — not even its own customers. One time, when the Florida equivalent of our PUC refused to grant NextEra a huge rate increase, four of the five commissioners were fired within months.
Our 100 percent renewable energy goal is about Hawaii controlling its own clean energy future. A distant mainland behemoth with a disastrous record on renewable energy and energy efficiency, and an aggressive culture of playing politics to maximize its own interests, is not the leader we can trust to achieve that goal.
Isaac Moriwake is an attorney with the public interest law firm Earthjustice and practices before the Hawaii PUC in many clean energy cases.
Marti Townsend is the director of Sierra Club of Hawaii, the state’s largest environmental and clean energy membership organization.
Viewpoint articles are the opinion of the writer and not necessarily the opinion of West Hawaii Today.