Legislators on the Move with Rep.Thielen and guest Henry Curtis
Is the HECO-NextEra Merger a Done Deal? Representative Cynthia Thielen and Henry Curtis discuss the issue.
contact: repthielen@capitol.hawaii.gov
Is the HECO-NextEra Merger a Done Deal?
IM: NextEra Energy is large and is well funded but has also seen more than its share of failed merger attempts....
(Deal after deal has fallen through...The Entergy Merger Failure....The Constellation Energy Merger Failure....)
CB: PUC must decide who will be allowed to intervene in the yearlong process.
read ... Is the HECO-NextEra Merger a Done Deal?
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Thanks to Wind, Solar NextEra Pays the Least in Taxes
IM: BusinessWeek published a list of the fifty companies that paid the least in taxes. One of those was FPL with an average tax rate of 1.3 percent over a four-year period:
“By investing in alternative energy over the past two decades …Those investments have also provided tax breaks worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Over the past four years, the Juno Beach (Fla.) company, has paid just $88 million in taxes on earnings of nearly $7 billion.
To ensure those tax rules reach into the future, FPL employs a cadre of well-placed Washington lobbyists. In 2008, the company paid well over $500,000 to five top-drawer firms to make its tax case to Congress, the White House and the U.S. Treasury. FPL spokeswoman Jackie Anderson says the company is merely taking advantage of incentives to develop renewable resources.”
MN: NextEra opposes tax credits that allow consumers to erect solar systems and believes they should be phased out
read ... Is the HECO-NextEra Merger a Done Deal?
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NextEra Personnel Already Placed in HECO Offices
IM: With the Nextera deal announced, HECO’s upper and middle management are facing a new and potentially greater threat. A glass ceiling will be imposed where leadership positions will be controlled from Florida.
Nextera has stated that no jobs will be cut in a two-year period following the one year regulatory process.
In the next three years HECO management may hunker down, strive to show why they should be kept on, appear stunned (deer-in-the-headlights) or look quickly for the few comparable jobs available elsewhere in Hawai`i.
Already Nextera is placing their people as monitors in various places within HECO.
Officially, it is called aligning the two companies. Unofficially it is letting HECO employees know who is in charge.
The Public Utilities Commission must continue with all of the HECO dockets on their plate since the Nextera deal may fail....
Nextera is large enough that they must have penciled out how to make money following the acquisition.
This probably involves laying off middle management, downsizing contracts with local law firms, outsourcing some positions, increasing the size of the Nextera lobbying force and entering new business arenas.
The importation of cheap liquefied natural gas (LNG) might give Hawai`iGas an advantage of HECO unless HECO were to seek to move in on the gas company with its own gas pipeline system.
Nextera has publicly stated bigger is better, and what more effective way is there for Nextera to become bigger, than attempting to overrun Hawai`i Gas.
The Public Utilities Commission must determine whether the sale is in the public interest....
One proposal that I heard and dismissed, and then heard again and again from totally different sources, is the idea that Nextera may try to gain support by spinning off one or more grids (MECO’s Moloka`i or Lana`i grid and or HELCO’s Hawai`i grid).
These spin-offs could become stockholder-owned, municipally-run or community-owned cooperatives. Communities and county governments should begin preparing today....
read ... Nextera is creating possibilities for the future of Hawai`i