The Hawaiian Homes Commission on Monday voted unanimously to accept and adopt a report identifying two Hawaii Island locations on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands property for potential geothermal development.
The report, called “Study, Evaluate, and Recommend Strategies Related to Geothermal Exploration, Feasibility, Extraction, and or Use on Hawaiian Home Lands,” identified the Humuula area of Maunakea and upper Kawaihae in the Kohala Mountains as having the “highest probability of viable electricity generation.”
David Louie, then-state attorney general, said in a 2014 opinion that DHHL is entitled to 100% of geothermal royalties on DHHL lands.
The report is the result of a permitted interaction group, or PIG, established March 20 by then-Interim HHC Chairman Ikaika Anderson.
The group, informally known as the “Geothermal PIG,” includes then-Oahu Commissioner Russell Kaupu as chairman and Hawaii Island Commissioners Makai Freitas and Michael Kaleikini, who also is senior director of Puna Geothermal Venture. Kaupu resigned from the Hawaiian Homes Commission in June to accept a DHHL staff position.
Doug Adams, Hawaii County director of Research and Development, told commissioners Monday that Mayor Mitch Roth is on board with geothermal development on DHHL land and encouraged the commission to “support the (PIG’s) work.”
“We’re a county. We don’t own energy, but we are certainly paying attention to the kind of energy that is being generated and then being used for grid and transportation purposes,” Adams said. “… For me, this is the … revenue piece for Hawaiian Home Lands and the department and beneficiaries that is associated with doing things the right way.”
The group, which has met four times, has consulted with University of Hawaii at Hilo researcher Don Thomas, director of the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes, and UH-Manoa researcher Nicole Lautze, director of the Hawaii Groundwater and Geothermal Resources Center. The pair presented a summary of their findings of a previous study they conducted.
Others consulted by the Geothermal PIG include Robbie Cabral, Malama Solomon and Mililani Trask, all principals of Waika Consulting, and Nona Taute, of University of Auckland Engineering in New Zealand.
Taute’s presentation included the state of geothermal development in New Zealand and the perspective of the native Maori people on that development. Cabral, Solomon and Trask presented information on geothermal development work they’ve done in New Zealand and hope to do in Hawaii.
According to Trask, who actively opposed geothermal development in Hawaii in the 1970s and ’80s, DHHL lands are suitable and acceptable for geothermal development because native people own the resource and will receive a fair share of the economic return.
The group reportedly came to the consensus that DHHL shouldn’t try to develop its geothermal resources on its own, but should partner with a private enterprise that has both industry knowledge and experience and the ability to finance the venture.
The report’s conclusion was that DHHL’s contribution should be limited to making its land available, lending political support for the project — which includes finding government funding in the form of grants and loans — and providing cultural competency, native community relations and beneficiary consultation.
Unsurprisingly, the proposal has turned out to be controversial.
“The devil is in the details,” Patrick Kahawaiolaa, homesteader and Keaukaha Community Association president told the Tribune-Herald on Tuesday. “I’m not skeptical of Dr. Thomas’ research. I’m skeptical of the people who now want to be the players in it,” referring to Trask, Cabral and Solomon.
Kahawaiolaa said he brought up the idea of Kaleikini recusing himself from the working group because of his involvement in the geothermal industry.
“He’s the face of geothermal on this island, OK? And he’s our commissioner,” Kahawaiolaa said. “I told him a couple of meetings ago, ‘I know you’re pushing geothermal, but just for the appearance of no conflict, everything above board, you need to recuse yourself. Tell the people, I’m from Ormat (PGV’s parent company), and if there’s anything that’s going to be heard, I’m not the one who’ll be making the decision.”
During Monday’s meeting, Kaleikini told Chairman Kali Watson he “would like to continue participation on the PIG.”
“We’ve got a lot more work to do. As mentioned by others, the opportunity is a great opportunity for our beneficiaries, for the island, for the state,” Kaleikini said.
Kahawaiolaa said he considers geothermal a potential source “not of revenue, but a source of sustainable, supposedly clean energy.”
“Beneficiaries consultation should take place, and the beneficiaries should have the opportunity to say yes or no. Give them the opportunity to say what they need to say.”
County Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy, who lives on a Hawaiian homestead in Panaewa, told the Tribune-Herald the money DHHL could collect from geothermal royalties would be a “game changer” for the department, which has a wait list of more than 28,000 beneficiaries who have applied for a homestead or agricultural lot — some of whom have waited for decades.
State Sen. Lorraine Inouye, a Hilo Democrat, told the Tribune-Herald she supports the effort by commissioners looking into geothermal, but has some questions. She and Lee Loy both mentioned the Kailapa Homesteads community in Kawaihae and the possible environmental effects of geothermal activity nearby.
“I was mayor in 1991 when the geothermal well blew up to start the geothermal process in Puna,” Inouye said. “It caused what I consider hazardous air quality in the nearby community at the time. I believe that discussions and a community hearing is very important for those homesteaders in the area. We want to have a sustainable capacity, going forward, to monitor air quality wherever there’s geothermal activity.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
