October 19, 2026 News Read

By Andrew Walden @ 10:00 AM :: 205 Views

Hawai‘i’s Business Leaders Sound the Alarm

Double-Digit Increases In Health Insurance Rates for 2026 and 2027

CB: … After years of single-digit increases in the base rates approved by Hawaiʻi’s insurance regulators, three of the state’s main health insurers received double-digit increases in 2026 for a benchmark health insurance rate and are asking for more for 2027. …

The state’s largest private insurer, HMSA, received approval for a 13.8% benchmark rate increase in 2026 and has applied for a 14.9% increase for 2027….

Hawaiʻi state law requires employers to provide health insurance for employees working at least 20 hours per week and to pay at least 50% of the premium costs, which presents a significant expense, especially for small businesses.

“Every year, it just keeps going up and up,” said Sherry Menor, president and chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi. “It’s a major cost driver, and it’s just getting harder and harder for small businesses to pay.”

Approximately 425,000 Hawaiʻi residents are covered by employer plans under the law, according to the Hawaiʻi Insurance Commission…

Read … Employers Face Double-Digit Increases In Health Insurance Rates - Honolulu Civil Beat

Can Enviros Keep Hawaii Energy Expensive with $500M Batteries?

SA: … Beyond excessive land requirements, the major problem with relying almost entirely on solar power is reliability. What will it cost to run Oahu on batteries, every night and on every overcast day?...

Hawaiian Electric’s “hybrid” solar farms provide only four hours of battery storage relative to peak generation, typically drawn down from 5 to 9 p.m. each evening, and recharged the next day — if it’s sunny. On a cloudy day, a solar farm can’t generate enough for daytime demand, let alone recharge for the night. The shortfall compounds over several overcast days.

Battery farms are a costly middleman between solar farms and ratepayers. Oahu’s first battery farm, Kapolei Energy Storage (KES), cost roughly $220 million. Once KES recovers its capital cost, a rate of return, and throughput charges, HECO estimates a 20-year ratepayer cost of $500 million. But KES’s 565 megawatt hours of storage provides less than 3% of Oahu’s daily demand….

(DO THE MATH: 33 x $500M= $16.5B worth of batteries/1M=$16,500 per person on Oahu. And then do it again when the batteries die out.)

The inescapable conclusion: Massive battery farms for solar reliability will be cost-prohibitive. But isn’t 100% renewable energy required by Act 97 of 2015? Perhaps a surprise to many, the answer is clearly no. The law contains 13 exceptions, including “inability (of utilities) to acquire sufficient cost effective renewable electrical energy.”…

Natural gas, shipped as LNG, is the only practical alternative to reduce costs, reduce carbon dioxide emissions relative to oil, and ensure electricity at night and on cloudy days….

$16.5B Sales Pitch #1: Column: Why liquefied natural gas is a threat to Hawaii’s environment and sustainability | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

$16.5B Sales Pitch #2: Column: Instead of LNG, pursue low-risk policies to make more homegrown electricity | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Read … Column: Can 100% renewable energy be reasonably achieved without thermal power? Unlikely | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Fake Water Shortages are new tool to drive housing prices up

CB: … When the developers behind Waikōloa Green went to the Hawaiʻi County Council’s Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions Committee last month to request a zoning change for 700 acres south of Waikōloa Village, they were prepared for some pushback.

They knew there was concern about adding 400 apartments and 300 single-family homes in an arid, windy town with significant wildfire risk and an insufficient number of escape routes. But developers Daniel Popkin and Jon Yoshimura had argued before the Leeward Planning Commission that those concerns shouldn’t prevent them from adding much-needed housing — 20% of it affordable — near the island’s biggest resorts, and the project sailed through the commission with a 5-0 vote.

What Popkin and Yoshimura didn’t prepare for, however, was the council meeting’s focus on water.

(TRANSLATION: The antis have a new trick. You will be seeing fake water shortages everywhere. And yes, these ‘shortages’ are 100% fake.)

They need a great deal of water. Waikōloa Green received a will-serve letter from Hawaiʻi Water Service, the company that runs eight wells in the area, indicating that it would provide the development’s residents with as much as 1.29 million gallons a day.

But the ability to pump water doesn’t guarantee that there will be enough water to pump without depleting the environment or getting in the way of traditional and cultural uses — two important facets of Hawaii’s public trust doctrine. For that reason, the recent meetings have also shed light on the broader state of groundwater in West Hawaiʻi, where other developments have been greenlit in recent years but remain unbuilt — and where an absence of robust state regulation may soon lead to more demand for water than the region’s aquifers can ‘sustainability’ provide.…

(IQ TEST: Do you believe this? Fail = Move to mainland.)

Read … It's The Wild, Wild West For Groundwater Management In Waikōloa - Honolulu Civil Beat

Surprisingly, $108M Convention center Roofing Job isn’t going well

SA: … (rewritten as satire) The $108.7 million effort to repair the Hawai‘i Convention Center’s leaking rooftop terrace could ~~face new delays~~ (be done quicker than expected) and cost ~~increases~~ (less) after demolition uncovered conditions that differ from the original building plans, forcing engineers to ~~revisit portions of~~ (acknowledge) the project (could be done much more easily than anticipated).

Talon Kishi, vice president of finance for the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, told lawmakers Wednesday that the project, which includes $11.9 million in contingency funding, has encountered (neither) permit delays, (nor) procurement issues and (the) unforeseen site conditions (all resulted in lower costs and faster completion). The ~~problems~~ (good news) prompted six claims from construction contractor Swinerton seeking schedule ~~extensions~~ (contractions) and ~~additional~~ (reduced) compensation….

(Meanwhile, legislators are working on a plan to legalize ‘shrooms, so all this will make sense.)

Read … Hawai‘i Convention Center’s $108.7M repair project faces delays | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Designed to Fail? HECO's Fine Print for O‘ahu's Wheeling Pilot

IM: … In 2025 the Legislature passed Act 266, opening the door to retail wheeling in Hawai‘i. Wheeling lets an independent renewable energy producer sell its power directly to a customer, using the utility's wires to get it there. It is one of the few tools that could bring real competition and new private investment into Hawai‘i's clean energy transition.

The Public Utilities Commission told Hawaiian Electric (HECO) to design a pilot. On September 2, 2026, HECO filed its updated Track A proposal for O‘ahu. Read it closely, and a pattern emerges. To minimize the chance of a successful Track A pilot, HECO has proposed numerous conditions, layered one on top of another, that together make it hard to see how many projects ever get built.

Here is what HECO is asking for….

Read ... Designed to Fail? HECO's Fine Print for O‘ahu's Wheeling Pilot | Ililani Media

What Oregon should teach Hawai‘i

ASD: … The Oregon school shooter was stopped by one thing and one thing only — a good, brave man with a gun. Hawai‘i offers its students and teachers only "gun-free zone" signs and some training that they run for their lives. But note this: Oregon's Silver Rail Elementary was a "gun-free zone" school, too….

AL: Hawaii’s Gun-Free School Laws Under Fire After Armed Father Stops Oregon Shooter

Read … Pipikaula Corner: What Oregon should teach Hawai‘i

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