Life of the Land

P.O. Box 37158, Honolulu, Hawai`i 96837-0158

Phone: 927-0709 henry.lifeoftheland@gmail.com

Hu Honua Appeal to the Hawaii Supreme Court

 SCOT-22-0000418 (Major Documents)

TIMELINE

Date	Filing
Jun 29	Hu Honua Appeal
Sep 22	Hu Honua Motion to Expedite
Sep 29	PUC, Tawhiri, LOL Motions in Opposition
Oct  5	Hu Honua Opening Brief
Nov 14	PUC, Tawhiri, LOL, CA, HECO Answering Briefs
Nov 28	Hu Honua Reply Brief
	Oral Arguments
	Hawai`i Supreme Court Decision

Board of Directors Miwa Tamanaha - President Lynette Cruz – Vice President David Lane Henkin – Secretary Art Mori – Treasurer   Staff Henry Curtis – Executive Director, Vice President for Consumer Issues · Peer Reviewer (2021-22) Initiative for Energy Justice (IEJ)  Justice in 100 Scorecard --Evaluating equity in 100% renewable energy or 100% clean energy laws   · Community-Co-Chair: Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam Restoration Advisory Board · Powering Past Coal Task Force Kat Brady – Assistant Executive Director, Vice President for Social Justice ·  Community Alliance on Prisons Coordinator ​ PLEASE HELP US with a tax-deductible check or PayPal Donation Life of the Land is a 501(c)3 charitable organization founded in February 1970. Donations are tax-deductible Birth of Life of the Land (1970-) Heptachlor and Food Poisoning Hawai`i Style (1980s) Toxic Contamination in Village Park (1990s) Struggle to Protect Wa`ahila Ridge (1973-2002) Climate Change Testimony of Kat Brady (2006) Legal Settlement for Pearl Harbor Contamination (2021) Pearl Harbor Military-Community Board Reviews Contamination & Cleanup Efforts (2022) Red Hill – One of Three O`ahu Military Fuel Storage Annexes  (2021) Life of the Land Strongly Opposes SB 2510. The bill has odd firm generation requirements and would ban new solar and wind projects. “Key leaders left mark on the state during Hawaii’s growth years.” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 14, 1995.  “The effect a person can have on a place is immeasurable. Here are the 10 people or organizations who, from 1965 to 1975, helped make Hawaii what it is today.” John Burns, Tom Gill, George Helm, Dan Inouye, Patsy Mink,  Ah Quon McElrath, Life of the Land, Land Use Commission, Bishop Estate, and Labor Unions. Those honorable mentioned but not making the list were such notables as Henry Kaiser, Frank Fasi, William S. Richardson court, Myron B. Thompson, Robert Oshiro, and George Ariyoshi.

Life of the Land`s Post-Hearing Brief re HELCO-Hu Honua Power Purchase Agreement (2022) LOL Comments re Reduced Electric Rates for Protected Agriculture (2022) PAR Hawaii Refinery Breaks Fuel Contract with HECO (2020-22) Life of the Land's Comments Re Hawaiian Electric Companies' Draft Stage 3 Oahu and Maui RFPs and Model Contracts (2022) Performance-Based Regulation -- Life of the Land filed joinders to Ulupono Initiative`s  filings made on May 13, 2020, April 8, 2022, and May 11, 2022. Gas Company Rate Case: Life of the Land & Hui Aloha 'Aina O Ka Lei Maile Ali'i Joint Testimony. (2022) Kahuku Wind Turbine Disaster (2022) Life of the Land`s Participation in Active Public Utilities Commission Proceedings (2022) HECO Companies HECO-Hu Honua Power Purchase Agreement (docket no. 2017-0122) Incentivizing HECO Companies with Performance-Based Regulation (docket no. 2018-0088) Integrated Grid Planning (docket no. 2018-0165) PAR-HECO Fuel Contract & HECO Fuel Management Plan (docket no. 2020-0090) MECO`s Kahului Generators Conversion to Synchronous Condensers, Waena Transmission Line modifications (docket no. 2020-0167) Reduced electricity rates for fruits or vegetables operations that implement renewable energy and energy efficiency measures (docket no. 2021-0078) University of Hawai`i Green Tariff Program (docket no. 2020-0204) Gas Company Gas Company Rate Case (docket no. 2017-0105) Gas Company Integrated Grid Planning (docket no. 2022-0009) Sale of Hawaii Gas to Argo (docket no. 2021-0098) Life of the Land intervened in 58 contested case proceedings at the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission Hawai`i Supreme Court Victories HECO`s 1971 Rate Case (1975) HELCO-Hu Honua Power Purchase Agreement (2019) Gas Company Rate Case (2020)  Links Hawaii State Energy Office (HSEO): Hawaii Statewide Energy Projects Directory; HECO Companies Stage 1 and 2 RFPs re Solar PV Plus Storage Projects (By Island and Estimated Completion Date)

#      #      #

Legislature Ramrods Disastrous SB 2510 Through Political Process

 The Hawai`i State Legislature passed SB 2510 CD1. 

 

The Hawai`i Senate demanded that the bill pass and asserted that it would kill numerous house bills if the house did not agree. The house went along with the senate and passed  bill that authorizes concurrent resolutions to alter state law. Allowing laws to be modified by resolutions is clearly unconstitutional.

 

Several requirements in SB 2510 have set off alarms. Not everyone opposes the bill for the same reason. But those who testified against the bill and/or think the bill is unworkable and should be vetoed is impressive: HECO, KIUC, Life of the Land, Ulupono Initiative, Blue Planet Foundation, Sierra Club, Tawhiri Wind, Hawaii Solar Energy Association, Tesla, Longroad Energy, Progression Wind, Revolusun, and the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

 

One provision of SB2510 states:

 

“Firm renewable generation shall be a minimum of 33.33 per cent of renewable energy generation for each island.  Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, this percentage may be updated by the legislature pursuant to the following:

(A)  By adoption of a concurrent resolution based on data from a study by the Hawaii natural energy institute, as described in section 7 of Act      , Session Laws of Hawaii 2022; and

(B)  The office of planning and sustainable development shall submit for introduction to the legislature a concurrent resolution for review of the proposed firm renewable energy generation minimum percentage.”

 

The Hawai`i State Legislature passes resolutions and bills. Bills are a constitutional animal. Article III of the State Constitution addresses the role of the Legislature in enaction laws.

 

Section 14.  “No law shall be passed except by bill.”

 

Section 15.  “No bill shall become law unless it shall pass three readings in each house on separate days.”

 

Section 16.  “Every bill which shall have passed the legislature shall be certified by the presiding officers and clerks of both houses and shall thereupon be presented to the governor.  If the governor approves it, the governor shall sign it and it shall become law.  If the governor does not approve such bill, the governor may return it, with the governor's objections to the legislature.”

 

Common Cause described the Legislative practice of gut and replace. “Gut and replace occurs when late in session a bill is stripped of all original content and replaced with an entirely different topic that has no rational connection to the original bill. The bill becomes unrecognizable and is pushed through the Legislature without required readings.”

 

Common Cause and the League of Women Voters challenged the gut and replace tactic and the Hawai`i Supreme Court agreed in a ruling issued in November 2021. Gut and replace is unconstitutional.

 

SB2510 doesn`t rely on gut and replace mechanism. But like gut and replace, using a resolution to take the place of a bill is manipulating the legislative process in an improper and unconstitutional way.

 

Resolutions are typically use for internal policy as well as to ask agencies to study issues or to conduct audits. The Senate Rules and House Rules for the 2021-2022 legislative term both mention resolutions but neither provides any supporting language on the use of using resolutions in shaping policy of agencies.

 

The title and contents of a resolution can be swapped out for totally new language at any point in the legislative process. A resolution needs only one hearing in each house and one floor vote. Resolutions cannot be vetoed by the Governor.

 

The Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) is a nonpartisan legislative service agency, that provides a wide variety of services to legislators, legislative committees, and members of the public. LRB has a webpage on Resolution FAQ’s.

 

“While resolutions don’t become law, they do express the sentiment of the Legislature and may prove vital in moving your issue forward. Resolutions have a wide range of uses: they can request a study or other course of action; request the formation of a task force or working group; establish an honorary designation for a day or month; or congratulate an individual or organization.”

 

Using resolutions to pass binding legal requirements is a new form of manipulating democratic principles.

 

“Firm renewable generation shall be a minimum of 33.33 per cent of renewable energy generation for each island."

 

Generation can be measured by how much can be produced (megawatts of capacity) or how much is produced (gross or net megawatt-hours). SB 2510 C1 appears to be relying on the first metric: the capacity measured in MW.

 

SB 2510 C1: "`Firm renewable energy` means renewable energy that is available and capable of being continually producing energy twenty-four hours per day, three hundred sixty-five days per year, on the demand of the energy system operator at its rated capacity, subject only to routine maintenance and emergency repairs."

 

Power Type / County	Oahu	Hawai`i	Maui County
Firm Renewable Generation (MW)	126.5	38	0
Variable Renewable Generation (MW)	1,105.0	164	220
Total Renewable Generation (MW)	1231.5	202	220
Renewable Generation (Firm/Total)	10%	18%	0%

 

There are four firm renewable energy generators on the HECO grids. On O`ahu there are two biofuel generators: Schofield (50 MW) and the Airport Emergency Power Facility (8 MW), and one waste-to-energy incinerator: H-POWER (68.5 MW). On Hawai`i Island there is the Puna Geothermal Venture (38 MW). In addition, Hamakua Energy uses a mixture of oil/biodiesel (60 MW).

 

Assuming the Governor signs the bill into law, any additional solar on Maui, Hawai`i, Moloka`i, and Lana`i would move the islands away from the legal requirement that a third of renewable energy systems are firm power.

#      #      #

Life of the Land Request

 Hawaiian Electric calls Life of the Land the most prolific intervenor in Public Utilities Commission proceedings, where laws, utilities, and intervenors meet to affect the future of Hawaii.

Coal, LNG, reliability, resilience, wind turbine, rooftop solar, utility fire walls, equity, justice, Hu Honua, AES, HECO, Hawai`i Gas, hydrogen, energy efficiency, KIUC, Moloka`i energy co-op, geothermal, the cost of electricity, climate change, pandemic supply change disruptions.

Life of the Land is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Donations are tax-deductible. Mahalo for those who have contributed to support our efforts. This is our annual fundraiser. We need your continued support, whether it is $5 or $50,000.

We won two landmark Hawaii Supreme Court decisions in 2019 and 2020 requiring lifecycle greenhouse gas analysis in all PUC electric and gas proceedings.

The Hu Honua Evidentiary Hearing is planned for January 2020. Hawaii Gas will produce its LNG greenhouse gas analysis in December 2021. HECO Critical Infrastructure and Hawaii Gas Integrated Resource Planning proceedings are about to open. There are ongoing proceedings on Performance-Based Ratemaking, Integrated Grid Planning, fuel supply and power purchase contracts.

Please support our on-going efforts to bring the community voice in regulatory proceedings.

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=8ZRGKRR8QYUGS

Henry Curtis
Executive Director
Life of the Land
P.O. Box 37158
Honolulu, HI  96837-0158

Life of the Land Comments on Legal Settlement for Pearl Harbor Contamination

Life of the Land filed comments on May 24, 2021, regarding the US Department of Justice`s proposed settlement of a major Pearl Harbor contamination site.

The Federal Register included a Notice by the Justice Department on April 23, 2021, regarding a Settlement for Walker Bay pollution. Environment Hawai`i provided a link to the Settlement Agreement. Life of the Land opposes the proposed settlement.

Life of the Land is intimately familiar with military pollution and clean-up issues, especially Walker Bay, the most polluted pesticide site in Hawai`i, a site involving dioxin, the most dangerous man-made pollutant. One Hawai`i Department of Health (HDOH) official said it was the most contaminated site in the U.S. west of the Rockies.

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Dioxins, and Furans are a class of related chemicals that vary in toxicity. One can examine the amount and toxicity of each of the chemicals found at a contaminated site and convert them to the equivalent toxicity of the most dangerous chemical (2,3,7,8 TCDD), to generate the toxicity equivalents (TEQ).

The worker safety level for TEQ TCDD is measured in parts per trillion. Clean-up of industrial sites is triggered at 10 parts per billion. Walker Bay sites are as high as 1,530 parts per billion. The boundary edge of the contamination site is publicly known to be unknown.

Normally, when contamination is found, including every other military polluted site in Hawai`i that we are familiar with, involves gradually moves outward from the suspected site to find out where the boundary is. In this case, no one calculated where the pollution boundary was, every surface, subsurface and groundwater borehole resulted in significant hits, with one site recording a dioxin concentration 1500 times above the residential remediation level (300 times above the industrial remediation level). Dioxin is the most hazardous manmade pollutant.

Congress and the military established Technical Review Committees (TRCs) and Restoration Advisory Boards (RABs) to monitor military clean-up efforts, offer advice to the military, and to interface with the community.

Life of the Land`s Executive Director served as community co-chair of the Hickam RAB (1996-2005) and served on three other RABs and TRCs that covered the major Army, Navy, and Air Force installations on O`ahu.

Life of the Land reviewed all the files pertaining to Walker Bay that existed in the military depository and at the Hawai`i Department of Health`s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response (HEER) office.

The land originally belonged to John (Ioane) Kaneiakama Papa ʻĪʻī (1800–1870), a 19th-century educator, politician, and historian in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Insurrections forced the King to adopt the illegal Bayonet Constitution that disenfranchised Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) and turned over control of Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) to the U.S. government to gain the support of the U.S. Congress for a reciprocal trade agreement.

Pearl Harbor`s Walker Bay site involves county, state, and federal agencies dealing badly with bankrupt and existing corporation polluters.

Homaikaia (Walker Bay) is an arm of Kaihuopala`ai (West Loch) along the western shore of Waipio Peninsula. On the north shore of Homaikaia was the 195 acre Loko Hanaloa (fish pond) which was filled in. On the south shore of Homaikaia was a sugar industry pesticide and fertilizer mixing area. Dioxin was used to fortify pesticides. The chemicals were then loaded into backpacks, trucks, and planes (a local airstrip was built at the site) for spraying on fields.

The Navy acquired the land through legal proceedings and condemnation from the John Papa `I`I Estate (which had used the area for growing sugarcane), and then leased the land to Oahu Sugar Company (OSCO) which used the area for growing sugarcane.

Oahu Sugar Company, Ltd. leased land for agricultural operations from 1947 until 1995. The site was used to store, mix, and load pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers onto backpacks and airplanes. An airfield was built.

By 1995, more than a quarter of a century ago, it was determined that the former pesticide mixing area was highly contaminated. For several years nothing was done about it. Eventually, a fence enclosed the area. On a site visit, the fence was found to have been breached and bicycle tracks inside revealed that children had been playing there. Each year DOH filed a report with the State Legislature stating that it was a high priority issue.

In 1998 the Hawaii Department of Health issued an order to Oahu Sugar Co to conduct an environmental site assessment. Oahu Sugar submitted a Remedial Investigation Report to the HDOH. “Attempts at negotiating such a settlement were fruitless and Oahu Sugar received an order from EPA in March 2005 that purported to require certain testing and remediation of the site.”

In a filing to the State Legislature regarding its activities for FY 2002, the Hawai`i Department of Health’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response (HEER) Office stated: “Sampling at this site by the HEER Office has indicated the elevated levels of dioxins, DDE, DDT ...This site has been given a high priority ranking by the HEER Office. The responsible party has recently conducted additional sampling to characterize the extent and nature of contamination.”

Oahu Sugar declared bankruptcy. Oahu Sugar Company was acquired by Kaanapali Land LLC

On February 7, 2007, the EPA wrote a letter to Kaanapali Land LLC asserting that Kaanapali was the successor to Oahu Sugar Company, Limited. The EPA believed that “Kaanapali Land, by virtue of certain corporate actions, is jointly and severally responsible for the performance of the response actions, including, without limitation, clean-up at the site.”

On September 30, 2009, the EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order to Kaanapali Land for the performance of work in support of a removal action at the former Oahu Sugar pesticide mixing site located on Waipio peninsula.

The U.S. Government (U.S. Navy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Department of the Interior proposed) filed a lawsuit against O‘ahu Sugar Company, LLC, and its successor, Ka‘anapali Land, LLC on April 19, 2021, and filed a consent decree settling the dispute on the same day.

The polluting corporations would pay the Navy and the EPA $5 million for response costs and $2.5 million for natural resource damages from the companies’ insurance proceeds, in exchange for an end to the companies need to conduct site assessment and remediation.

Thus, before the extent of the pollution is known, and before determining the risk to the public, the parties to this mess will sweep everything under the rug.

The Consent Decree states, "Settling Defendants do not admit any liability to Plaintiff arising out of the transactions or occurrences alleged in the complaint."

"Settling Federal Agency does not admit any liability arising out of the transactions or occurrences alleged in any counterclaim that is or could be asserted by Settling Defendants."

"The United States and Settling Defendants agree, and this Court by entering this Consent Decree finds, that this Consent Decree has been negotiated by the Parties in good faith, that settlement of this matter without further litigation and without the admission or adjudication of any issue of fact or law is appropriate and will avoid prolonged and complicated litigation between the Parties, and that this Consent Decree is fair, reasonable, and in the public interest."

It appears that the Settlement Agreement is more about getting rid of the regulatory problem while ignoring the underlying pollution problem.

#      #      #

Life of the Land

 Aloha

Life of the Land is a 501(c)3 charitable organization founded in February 1970.

Donations are tax-deductible

Life of the Land is Hawai`i’s own energy, environmental and community action group advocating for the people and `aina for over 50 years. Our mission is to preserve and protect the life of the land through sound energy and land use policies and to promote open government through research, education, advocacy and, when necessary, litigation.

Life of the Land supports sustainable agriculture, affordable housing, non-combustion-based energy, and a progressive economy.

Life of the Land asserts that every energy project has positive and negative economic, environmental, social, cultural, geographic, greenhouse gas, taxpayer ratepayer impacts, unintended side-effects, cumulative impacts, and other externalities.

Net Zero Games

For illustrative purposes, assume that a tree has a lifespan of 100 years.

The tree absorbs more carbon dioxide as a mature tree and less as a sapling or when it is old.

Years	CO2 absorbed per year	Total CO2 absorbed	Total
0-10	1	10
10-50	5	200	210
50-70	5	100
70-100	3	90	400

 

One form of math: After 50 years the tree has absorbed 210 units. The tree is chopped down and burned, releasing the 210 back into the atmosphere. 

The tree is replaced with a new tree which in the next 50 years absorbs 210 units from the atmosphere.  

Since 210 was chopped and 210 planted, they cancel out over a period of 100 years and the operation is net-zero.

The second form of math: If nothing happened then 400 units would be absorbed over 100 years, but because of the tree operation only 210 was absorbed resulting in a loss of 190. 

In addition, the tree operation involved diesel farm equipment, transportation fuels, and wood chipping. Thus, the loss is much greater than 190. 

This is called net-zero because it sounds good, and besides, the term isn`t defined.

The third form of math: A biomass company signs a contract with an electric utility to produce tree-based electricity. 

In addition to the second form of math, the biomass company claims that it signed unknown contracts with unknown companies to plant unknown trees in unknown places. 

The biomass company claims that a plan exists, but there is no oversight, monitoring, or evaluation of any actual planting by any regulatory agency or any public review. 

This is called net-zero perhaps because it takes an IQ of zero to believe that a litigant-oriented, greed-based company, that relies on public relations to persuade regulators, should be trusted.

 #      #      #