A Silent Energy Death

by Henry Curtis, Ililani Media, April 4, 2015 (reprinted with permission of author)

Unknown to perhaps everyone at the time, the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) Energy Agreement died in September of last year.

By way of background, in January 2008 Republican Governor Linda Lingle announced in her State of the State address that energy was going to be one of her major focuses.

Hawaii officials and the feds signed a top-down secretly negotiated Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in January 2008.

Later that year the State, Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) and subsidiary Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) signed the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative Energy Agreement.

The document was often quoted but seldom read. The web contained only a non-searchable scanned image until in was converted into a word document by Life of the Land in 2013.

The document was a blueprint for the future. It stated that it was desirable to move towards renewable energy -- which would be more expensive in the short-run -- but cheaper in the long-run. When renewable energy was installed people often asked, why aren't my rates going down! The document also called for the end to Net Energy Metering.

In an effort to bolster his re-election campaign Governor Abercrombie and DBEDT came up with the idea of HCEI 2.0 in the spring of 2014.

In the closing months of the Abercrombie administration the original MOU was updated.  The September 2014 Memorandum of Understanding did not state it was replacing the 2008 Memorandum of Understanding.

“This current Memorandum of Understanding (“2014 MOU”) builds upon the foundation laid by the 2008 MOU by realigning and recommitting the partnership between the Parties.”

Yet at the same time the Energy Agreement was quietly killed.

In February 2015 Hawaiian Electric Industries filed an annual 10-K report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The document stated the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) Energy Agreement is dead.

“In September 2014, the parties to the Energy Agreement now regard the agreements and policy directives within the Energy Agreement to have been advanced or superseded by subsequent events, as well as by decisions and orders issued by the PUC, and accordingly have ended the Energy Agreement as of September 14, 2014.

"On September 15, 2014, the State of Hawaii and the U.S. Department of Energy executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) recognizing that Hawaii is embarking on the next phase of its clean energy future.”

In September the HCEI Energy Agreement had been amended with a secret death clause.

Governor Abercrombie, DBEDT Director Richard Lim, Consumer Advocate Jeffrey Ono, HEI Board Chair Constance Lau and HECO CEO Alan Oshima signed HCEI Energy Agreement Amendment Number 2 “effective as of September 14, 2014.”

“For the express purpose of making clear the intent of the Parties to the Agreement, and hereby agree to amend the Agreement by rescinding it in its entirety."

The HCEI Energy Agreement had died shortly before its sixth birthday.

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