Closing the DoE achievement gap: "Inadequate Progress Made"
Maui Hires Consultant to Study Utility Takeover Options
Video: Baby Parts dealers “funding places in Hawaii for themselves”
Telescope Prediction: Hawaii Supreme Court Will Rule for Challengers
Morita: "Very expensive energy transformation done on the backs of those who can least afford it"
Morita: ...Unless there are major technical and cost breakthroughs in the near future, 100 percent renewable is a journey that many of us will not see accomplished in our lifetime....
Because of the significant infrastructure investments that need to be made, Hawaii has only one chance to get it right or it's going to be a very expensive energy transformation done on the backs of those who can least afford it.
Yes, Hawaii's governor has a bully pulpit and a very important role to articulate and inspire Hawaii's energy future -but his recent linear description and pronouncement is not a complete vision.
100 percent renewable is an easy soundbite; its implementation is not....
read ... Is '100 percent renewable' in Hawaii's future?
NextEra Pushes Back Against Utility Coop Model
HTH: Portions of testimony submitted Monday to the PUC by an energy adviser speaking on behalf of the NextEra-HEI merger took aim at public ownership of utilities, saying the commission should not delay or reject the transaction to include the consideration of municipal or cooperative utilities.
“At this stage, the notion of a cooperative or municipal electric utility is at the very early concept stage of development and, as will be further explained, these efforts usually are unsuccessful,” said John Reed, chairman and CEO of Massachusetts-based Concentric Energy Advisors Inc. and CE Capital Inc.
In response to a question from intervenors about whether a municipal or cooperative utility might be more cost effective than the Hawaiian Electric companies, Reed offered an unequivocal, “No.”
“The economics of forming a new utility are very challenging,” he said. “The cost to acquire a utility often overshadows the new utility for decades. In addition to the high acquisition costs involved … there is no inherent advantage of a co-op or muni on the largest component of a customer’s bill — fuel mix. As the commission points out (in a previous decision), ‘the Hawaiian Electric Companies essentially do not earn a profit or experience a loss due to changes in fuel prices. These expenses represent 80 to 85 percent of the total power supply functional costs and 60 to 65 percent of the total cost of electric service.’ … In Hawaii, the advantages related to fuel diversity do not exist for a newly formed utility.”
HIEC director and spokesman Marco Mangelsdorf, who also is president of Hilo-based ProVision Solar, responded via an emailed statement Tuesday, saying Reed’s testimony belied “a regrettable ignorance of the diverse generating portfolio existing today on Hawaii Island, a portfolio heavy on renewable energies that NextEra utilities can only dream of.”
As an example, Mangelsdorf pointed to the fact 50 percent of the kilowatt hours consumed on the island last year came from renewable energy sources, including geothermal, wind, solar and hydroelectric power.
“And that diversity will continue to grow robustly here in a timeline measured in years, not decades,” he said.
Mangelsdorf argues HIEC would have multiple tools at its disposal to lower electric rates on the Big Island, including “tax exempt status, the lower cost of capital available to co-ops and the ability to keep all profits … on island, as opposed to being beholden to profit-driven shareholders far and wide.”
Reed held that the recent trend has been toward privatization of utilities instead of municipalization, with his research showing 8 of 10 privatization efforts since 2000 were approved.
“Nearly all of the more than 900 cooperatives and 2,200 municipal electric systems were formed in the early 1900s, and rarely through an acquisition approach,” he said....
read ... NextEra Pushback
NextEra Energy's initial HECO sale application doesn't apply anymore, exec says
PBN: The acquisition application that NextEra Energy Inc. and Hawaiian Electric Co. sent to Hawaii regulators in January doesn't apply anymore, the head of the Florida utility giant’s Hawaii operation said.
The statement by Eric Gleason, president of NextEra Energy Hawaii, was in response to Gov. David Ige’s pronouncement in July that he opposed NextEra's $4.3 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Electric Co. as it’s currently proposed.
“The merger, as currently proposed, is not applicable at this point,” said Gleason, who was joined by Hawaiian Electric Co. President and CEO Alan Oshima as the featured speakers at a Rotary Club of Honolulu luncheon Tuesday at The Royal Hawaiian hotel in Waikiki. “We increased our commitments to the state, and today [the governor] has said that he does not have any comments and wants to review the [new] filing.”
On Monday, NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE) and Hawaiian Electric submitted a more than 1,000-page filing to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission that outlines 50 new commitments to the state, including nearly $1 billion in customer savings and economic benefits in the first five years after the deal closes....
FH: Will Ige Set Hawaii Free?
SA: All clean energy is just a dream
read ... Re-Do
When Cops Become Criminals: Arrests of HPD Officers Point to a ‘Culture of Corruption’
CB: Dozens of Honolulu police officers have been arrested over the past few years for crimes ranging from drunken driving and tampering with government records to sex assault and extortion....
read ... Criminals
Honolulu earns a C grade for small business friendliness, Thumbtack survey finds
PBN: ...In all, nearly 18,000 U.S. small business owners, including 37 in Honolulu, responded to the survey, which asked them to rate their state and city governments across a broad range of policy factors....
According to the survey, one of the state's weakest areas is in employment, labor and hiring regulations, which received a failing grade from local businesses. It's a figure that has not changed since the last Thumbtack survey was taken two years ago.
The state also received a D grade when survey takers were asked about the ease of starting a business and hiring new employees. Those two particular areas were given F and B- grades, respectively, in 2013.
The state also received a D-plus grade among survey respondents when it came to rating local tax codes and tax regulations, a slight bump up the state's failing grade just two years ago....
read ... Survey
DOE’s budget to air-condition schools Debated
SA: ...The department has identified 20 schools on an air-conditioning priority list that ranks Ewa Beach Elementary, Ilima Intermediate and Campbell High — all in Ewa — in the top spots.
“We’re trying to do everything we can in an effective and sustainable manner given, again, the funding that we’ve received,” Carlson said. “We fully acknowledge that by doing these things we will still have to most likely provide mechanical cooling to some of the classrooms because it’s not going to lower it to a thermally comfortable level. But as we step through each of these schools, that might help us reduce the load of the AC that we might need.”
Carlson said the schools with central air conditioning also have some of the highest utility bills. For example, Pohakea Elementary in Ewa Beach saw its utility bill increase by 130 percent after installing air conditioning schoolwide, to $14,000 a month from $6,000. The department expects its annual electricity bill for all schools this year will cost $48 million.
Brennan Lee, a senior at Mililani High School and the student representative on the BOE, said the heat is a distraction. “I’d love to have AC,” he said, “but just the utility cost worries me.”
Corey Rosenlee, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association and a staunch advocate for air conditioning for schools, said the DOE is not being realistic with its $1.7 billion estimate.
“On a day like today it’s really hot, and it’s getting to a point where it is unhealthy for our students and teachers,” he testified Tuesday. “But instead of just coming here and telling you about the problem — I think you’re all aware of the problem — I do really want to offer a solution. … We need to throw out the $1.7 billion plan … because that plan is never going to happen. The Legislature is never going to give us $1.7 billion.”
He suggested the DOE start by performing electrical capacity studies at schools without air conditioning and categorize them into schools with sufficient electrical capacity for air conditioning, schools with some capacity and schools with no capacity.
From there, he said the department should look at making it easier for schools with capacity to partner with community groups and businesses or allow teachers to pay for air-conditioning units. For schools with some capacity, he suggested that a pilot solar-powered air-conditioning system on a Waianae High portable classroom be expanded to a school to test its effectiveness. That system is still connected to the electrical grid for stability....
read ... Debate
Hawaii Board of Education Passes Student Discipline Policy
CB: After more than three months of debates and delays, the Hawaii Board of Education approved a Student Climate and Discipline policy Tuesday to guide schools in their use of Chapter 19 — state administrative rules governing school discipline issues.
The new policy calls for schools to create a positive environment, where all members of the campus community are “welcomed, supported, and feel safe in school.”
Many specifics for how schools should create that environment however, including a mandate for all schools to create school climate goals, were pulled from the policy after complaints from principals that the proposal tied their hands and that they had not been properly consulted....
Last year Hawaii suspended less than 4 percent of its students — well below the national average, but there were big disparities in suspension rates among ethnic groups and various schools....
SA: Board OKs discipline plan giving principals ‘discretion’
PDF: Discipline Policy
read ... Hawaii Board of Education Passes Student Discipline Policy
BoE Seeks Ethics Workaround on Free Travel
SA: The Board of Education decided Tuesday to hammer out a policy to ensure that public school teachers can chaperone students on educational field trips without having to pay their own way.
The unanimous decision followed a sometimes testy exchange with Ethics Commission Executive Director Les Kondo, who assured board members that he thinks the situation is “fixable” and that part of the controversy stems from “misinformation.”
“The commission is not saying that teachers cannot receive free travel,” Kondo told board members at their general meeting Tuesday. “What the commission is saying is that under the current model, the way that the trips are currently organized, the commission believes it is inappropriate for those teachers to accept the free travel.”...
SA: Ethics Challenge: Solve DOE student travel issue
read ... Travel
Councilmembers vote to override veto of sit-lie ban expansion
SA: The Honolulu City Council voted 7-2 Wednesday to override Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s veto of a bill that expands Oahu’s sit-lie ban to two additional Chinatown pedestrian malls.
The bill, introduced by Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, extends the sit-lie prohibition to College Walk Mall and Kila Kalikimaka Mall, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The bill also extends the hours the sit-lie ban would apply at two additional malls — Fort Street Mall, to 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and Union Mall 24 hours a day seven days a week....
Judy Lind, executive director of the Kukui Children’s Foundation on Kukui and Aala streets, testified it’s clear that their facility is an office building, and that it is being hindered by people who sit and lie in the two malls....
HNN: Homeless male gets 20 years for killing homeless woman
SA: Homeless on notice
read ... Sit-Lie
Schatz: Housing First Is Solution to Hawaii’s Homelessness Problem
CB: The senator says federal, state and county governments should focus on putting homeless people into housing rather than servicing them in the streets.... He referenced a Vox article that found it’s three times cheaper to give homeless people housing than to leave them on the streets....
Housing First isn’t the only policy response to homelessness that Schatz supports. The senator complimented the state Public Housing Authority’s efforts to prioritize homeless children when picking families off the wait list.
Schatz praised the city administration’s efforts to relax the rules around “ohana units” to allow them to be rented to anyone. The City Council is planning to take up that proposal, Bill 20, on Wednesday....
SA: ADUs bill is manifestation of poor city planning
read ... Schatz Actually Gets Something Right
Homeless Taking over Kewalo Basin
HNN: ...“I won’t leave my board there anymore,” he said. Billy fears someone will steal it. He also claims that he’s seen some of the homeless using drugs at the park.
With the impending city enforcement efforts aimed to clear out the nearly 300 homeless living along the sidewalks in near the Children’s Discovery Center after Labor Day, some park users say they fear even more homeless will call Kewalo Basin Park home....
Frequent users like Billy believe there’s a double standard - one for the public and one for the homeless....
Critics say the homeless these popular parks is having a negative impact on the public and visitors.
A flight attendant who frequently stops in Honolulu who asked not to be named said she walks thru the park often when she’s here. She said, “It seems it’s worse every time I’m here.” The woman said she used to walk further into Kakaako but no longer does because of the homeless.
“Some elderly people who used to walk along this path, don’t come this way anymore because they don’t feel safe,” said Billy.
Critics say when Ala Moana Beach Park had a major problem with the homeless in the parks, the city stepped up park closure enforcement and all they want is the state, through the HCDA, to do the same for Kewalo Basin Park....
read ... Bum Invasion
Hawaii County Council Grudgingly Votes to Raise Ethics to Kenoi's Level
WHT: Six years after it was first proposed by Mayor Billy Kenoi, a package of ethics reforms was grudgingly advanced Tuesday by a County Council committee.
The council Finance Committee voted 5-4 along west-east lines to forward Bill 37 to the council with a positive recommendation, after promises of future amendments from bill sponsor Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille.
“This is part of what the mayor was promoting, at least back then,” Wille said, adding the bill reduces conflicts of interest and “keeps us as employees at a higher standard of performance and of ethics and morals.”
The bill would ban companies owned by county officers or employees or their immediate families from holding county contracts valued at more than $50,000. It would prohibit county officers or employees from representing private interests against the county or appearing on behalf of private interests before county agencies. And, it clarifies that county property, facilities, time, equipment and personnel can be used only for a public purpose, and not for private business or campaign purposes.
Kenoi first proposed the bill in September 2009. Since then, it’s bounced between County Council and Board of Ethics, without approval by either body...
HTH: Closing the barn door: committee tightens pCard rules
read ... Almost as Ethical as Kenoi
Residents petition DOH for stricter cane burning rules
MN: Two Kihei residents have petitioned the state Department of Health for stricter rules and greater oversight of agricultural burns - including cane burning by Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. - that call for the health director, not the farmer, to make daily calls on whether to burn or not.
In their Aug. 21 petition, Deborah Mader and John Fitzpatrick target HC&S cane burning, which they say is "unnecessary from both a technical and economic standpoint and has serious health consequences for the public."
Fitzpatrick, a schoolteacher in Kihei, said he and Mader want the Health Department to evaluate meteorological forecasts and to make a burn or no burn determination publicly prior to midnight before the scheduled burn to avoid a situation that occurred on May 27.
On that day, smoke from a cane burn (sort of) engulfed South Maui for several hours, causing residents (the usual suspects) to complain about burning eyes and coughing. At Kamalii Elementary School in Kihei, a (carefully scripted) video showed students covering their noses and mouths. (Remember that tactic regarding pesticides?)
MN: DOH finds cane burning petition
read ... Cane Burning
First Plea in Molokai Fishing Attack
MN: ...four men charged with boarding the vessel in waters off east Molokai on May 25, 2014. Dr. Daryl Wong, an Oahu resident known for his diving and custom handcrafted spear guns, and three others were on the boat. Officials said an altercation occurred on board, and one person was shoved or fell overboard.
Some Molokai residents (Walter Ritte's cronies) said the four defendants were protecting island resources from people coming from other islands.
As part of a plea agreement, Dudoit had pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of second-degree terroristic threatening, a misdemeanor offense. Charges of second-degree robbery, first-degree unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle and harassment were dismissed....
"The defendant believed that people should not be able to go to Molokai," Hura said. "When that is the motivation, how can the court find the defendant is unlikely to reoffend? Basically, if somebody else comes to Molokai, he's going to tell them to leave."....
As part of his sentence, Dudoit was ordered to complete anger management treatment services. He could keep the conviction off his record if he complies with court requirements for the next year.
An Oct. 22 hearing was set to determine restitution, which would be limited to damage to Wong's boat.
Trials are pending for co-defendants Robin Wainuhea Dudoit, 57; Floyd Kumukoa Kapuni, 31; and Kaiula Kalawe English, 28. Each has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree robbery, first-degree unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle, first-degree terroristic threatening and harassment....
"...you don't ever get involved with anybody who's taking the law in his own hands, otherwise that leads to a lawless society."
read ... boat incident
Fishing Dispute Muddies Already Confusing State of Sovereignty Claims
ILind: ...In his letter, Silva minces no words. He accuses Keanu Sai of “perverting the facts,” and calls his behavior “misleading, misdirected, dangerous and harmful” to Hawaiians.
The letter then goes on to debunk a series of claims made by Sai in speeches, publications, and the Hawaiian Kingdom website.
The first case reviewed involves a criminal case involving two Molokai fisherman. Sai has proclaimed that a recent ruling by a state judge confirmed the valid and continued existence of the kingdom.
Silva’s letter takes Sai to task for the claim and explains what actually happened in court....
Background: Misrepresentation: Keanu Sai Again Ordered to Cease and Desist
read ... Dispute Muddies Already Confusing State of Sovereignty Claims
Why one naturopath quit after watching her peers treat cancer patients
V: ...when I stumbled across Britt Hermes's blog —Confessions of a Naturopathic Doctor — I was immediately hooked.
Hermes studied naturopathy, a type of alternative medicine focused on "natural" treatments like herbs and homeopathy, at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Washington. She then practiced for three years in Washington and Arizona — all while becoming increasingly disillusioned with her chosen profession.
"Naturopathic medicine is not what I was led to believe," she wrote on her blog. "I discovered that the profession functions as a system of indoctrination based on discredited ideas about health and medicine, full of anti-science rhetoric with many ineffective and dangerous practices."
Last year, Hermes left naturopathy behind and enrolled in a Master of Science program in Germany. On her blog, she's been myth-busting alternative medicine, and writing about everything from the gaps in regulation to what it's like to find cancer in a patient as a young ND.
Her crusade is not only personal; it's about protecting public health. In a number of states, NDs can prescribe pharmaceuticals, do minor surgery, and essentially act as primary care physicians.* The problem is that they have only a fraction of the clinical training that medical doctors do, and their education, as Hermes and others have pointed out, is peppered with dangerously pseudoscientific health claims. This is her story....
read ... VOX
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