Study Identifies the Cities Where Residents Live Most Beyond Their Means--Honolulu 6th
HECO Plan: Collect $1 Billion From Customers
CB: … Hawaiian Electric Co.’s biggest request to lawmakers this session was a $1 billion fund to cover future wildfire liability, paid for by a small fee on its customers. The utility was looking to shore up its battered credit rating, but instead, it has found a political headache.
Labor organizations, the insurance industry, utility regulators and a long-time environmental activist have criticized the proposed Wildfire Recovery Fund, calling it a benefit for HECO at the expense of ratepayers. Even the governor’s office has weighed in, suggesting HECO should pay more into the fund than the utility’s original bill called for.
The result: proposed amendments that have piled on additional financial burdens HECO says it can’t shoulder.
(TRANSLATION: Legislators are all pandering. This is headed for Conference Committee where the real bill will be written.)
lawmakers, citing concerns that the bill also limited customers’ right to sue after a disaster, have tacked on amendments that undermine the legislation’s original main purposes.
A Senate amendment, for instance, limits the ability of HECO executives to get raises as long as the state’s largest utility is collecting fees from customers for the fund.
But the central questions involve how much customers will have to contribute toward the $1 billion fund and how much HECO will be protected from future wildfire lawsuits….
(See? Told you.)
Utilities elsewhere in the country widely use such securitization mechanisms, but HECO needs legislative approval to do it. This year’s legislation is a follow-up to bills that failed last session.
2025: Electricity-Caused Wildland Fires: Costs, Social Fairness, and Proposed Solution
2025: No-Fault Insurance for Electricity-Caused Wildfires?
read … Lawmakers Question HECO Plan To Collect $1 Billion From Customers - Honolulu Civil Beat
18 Months Later: Electricity Still not Restored in Lahaina Burn Zone
SA: … about 3,000 customers were affected….
The public can contact the County of Maui to make requests to reinstall or reenergize a streetlight in Lahaina at mauicounty.gov/2024/COM-Connect Opens in a new tab.
Decker said Hawaiian Electric is working through approximately 150 permanent service requests and 55 temporary service requests. She said customers who were not existing Maui customers before August 2023 are not anticipated to experience delays in connecting to service….
“People are upset that they are not putting the utilities underground. Lahainaluna was vulnerable, right? The (fallen) trees and telephone poles, that’s why we couldn’t get out — even on the highway. That was one of the main issues. So (why did they still go) back and put up wooden poles?” Kahahane said. “It’s something that they are not telling us, or they don’t care about. You know, it’s a lot to do with cost, but the cost of lives (to them) doesn’t mean (much).”…
read … Restoring Lahaina power is critical to rebuilding | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Lahaina Harbor is fixed, why hasn’t it reopened?
SA: … The harbor was cleaned up and dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers and our loading dock is in great shape. The fuel dock is operational. Much of the harbor is totally usable. Waiting another two to three years is just plain crazy. Open the harbor now. …
read … Letter: Lahaina Harbor is fixed, why hasn’t it reopened? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Census Bureau Says Hawaii Population Increasing: Economist Skeptical
SA: … Census estimates suggest that Hawaii’s population edged up 0.3%, or by 4,759 people, in 2024 and bumped up the total population count to 1,446,146 from 1,441,387 in 2023….
Carl Bonham, director of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, said at a briefing on the local economy made to the state House Finance Committee in January that he was somewhat skeptical about the Census Bureau methodology for estimating immigration in Hawaii, which represents one part of population change.
“My guess is that’s significantly overestimating what we are seeing from migration,” he said. “I say that without proof. It’s just looking at the methodology, my gut is that it’s probably overestimating.”
The Census Bureau takes a national count for immigration and allocates it proportionally among states by population size and historical demographics about residents who are foreign-born. Hawaii has a high foreign-born population, so the 2024 estimate and revised 2023 estimate for how many foreigners took up residence in Hawaii tends to be relatively high.
Tian has the same view as Bonham, and said he was surprised by the Census data suggesting Hawaii’s population rose a little in each of the past two years.
“It’s a methodological issue,” Tian said. “We are one of the highest (states) in the U.S. in terms of foreign-born population.”
During the legislative briefing, Bonham said the latest estimates for Hawaii population increases in 2023 and 2024 should not suggest that there has been any change in the dynamic with the high local cost of living and shortage of affordable housing pressuring residents to leave the state.
According to the most recent Census estimates, 9,321 more U.S. citizens moved out of Hawaii than moved to the state in 2024.
For non-U.S. citizens the Census Bureau estimated that the incoming number outweighed the outgoing number by 11,893.
Another factor in population change, births and deaths, was reported to have resulted in a net gain of 2,271 Hawaii residents in 2024.
Tian expects this last factor, known as natural population change, will continue to be positive until 2034. However, he also said he has a feeling that the anticipated shift to negative natural population change, influenced by Hawaii’s aging population, could come sooner….
read … Hawaii population increases in new estimate | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Hawaii fireworks injuries have risen over past decade
SA: … The number of fireworks-related injuries in Hawaii has steadily risen over the past decade and a half, reaching a 15-year high over the latest New Year’s holiday, according to updated statistics from the state Department of Health.
Additionally, the Aliamanu fireworks explosion on New Year’s Day has now become the deadliest in the isles after the death toll climbed to six, surpassing five from a bunker explosion in 2011.
The state Department of Health recently updated the number of fireworks-related injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2024-2025 to 112, after late data came in from a hospital. Of that total, 91 were on Oahu and 21 on neighbor islands.
Previously, DOH had reported there were 110 injuries for the most recent New Year’s holiday….
read … Hawaii fireworks injuries have risen over past decade | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Half of Hawaiʻi Inmates Choose to Leave Prison Without The IDs They Need to Start Over
CB: … Almost half of people released from Hawaiʻi’s state prisons between November 2023 and October 2024 did not have a valid state ID, according to data the corrections department reported to the Legislature. About 95% of people released from jail during that same period did not have one.
Tommy Johnson, the department’s director, says the inmates are partly to blame.
“It’s not from our lack of trying; you can’t make them fill out the documents for a card,” Johnson told Civil Beat. “A lot of the folks don’t want to provide that information to us.”
Johnson also noted that the numbers may be inaccurate because people might not have had their IDs with them when they were arrested, and those documents are being held for them by someone on the outside. He also cited challenges coordinating with other government agencies and obtaining the equipment necessary to collect inmates’ photos and signatures for their IDs….
read … Half Of Hawaiʻi Inmates Leave Prison Without The IDs They Need To Start Over
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