Letters

Love and hot air

Friday, October 24th, 2008

According to published reports, Hawaiian Electric Co. CEO Constance Lau compared the agreement that will bring wind-generated energy to Moloka‘i, Lana‘i, Maui and O‘ahu to getting married: despite some questions and uncertainty about the future, you know you’re doing the right thing. In contrast, Henry Curtis of Life of the Land Hawai‘i called it "a bunch of hot air."

Aside from reminding us that Connie Lau is a bit of a romantic and Henry Curtis a bit of a punster, the competing views frame the gist of the discussion that invariably arises when we try to make big changes.

The basic outlines of the agreement would support wind-power generators on Maui, Moloka‘i and Lana‘i, with an underwater cable linking those islands to Maui,O‘ahu and even the Big Island. HECO estimates that the system could provide up to a third of O‘ahu’s power requirements, saving billions of dollars in fuel costs and significantly reducing our state’s dependence on imported oil. That money would stay in the local economy, instead of being sent overseas.

I would also hope that Moloka‘i residents will able to fill many of the jobs that accompany the task of managing a wind farm on the island, whether those jobs are technical or supportive in nature. And, as I’ve pointed out before, while the presence of wind generators will have some visual impact, they are more environmentally friendly than high-density hotel or residential developments.

So the agreement could mean environmental preservation, an economic boost, jobs, and cheap electricity. What’s not to love?

Experience shows that for every action, there is an opposite and equal criticism. An alternative always exists. The media quotes Mr. Curtis as saying that, "consumers will be a lot happier if they put solar panels on their roofs." He may be right. While the wind power proposal shifts HECO from being an energy producer to an energy broker, it still leaves them in command of the means of distribution; we will still have an electric grid to deal with. Individual power generation eliminates our collective reliance on centralized generation and the potential for market leverage and distribution failures.

Still, the best is the enemy of the good. A plan based on individual generation capacity assumes that everyone who wants to install solar panels will be able to pay for them, or will live in a location suitable for solar power. Those who cannot afford solar panels or cannot use them would remain at the mercy of centrally generated, fossil fuel-based electricity. In other words, those with the least economic leverage would face the greatest financial burden. That is unacceptable.

I believe that the agreement between the state and HECO to develop wind farms and establish Moloka‘i as a hub for energy distribution will be a boon to the island and its residents. The next key element, however, will be our willingness to continue to work for the elements of the plan that offer the greatest benefits to the people. If power is being generated on Moloka‘i, residents should enjoy the lowest rates. If jobs are available, they should go to residents as well. I, for one, am willing to make that commitment, and use this as a path toward improvement, instead of another opportunity for criticism.

Bob Jones Gets it Wrong on Molokai

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Honolulu newspaper columnist Bob Jones recently wrote a piece on his observations of Moloka‘i. As a columnist, he is paid to present his opinions as fact, and as a journalist of a sort, he has a protected right to say whatever he wants. It is just unfortunate to see anyone bare his ignorance and narrow-mindedness in such a public way.

For those who have not encountered Jones’ Moloka‘i musings, he calls it "the Screwed Up Island," and says that residents should not try to preserve the island and its lifestyle "if you insist on welfare." He closes by claiming that, "Most people make something happen. Not on Moloka‘i."

Mr. Jones lives in the suburbs of Honolulu. I imagine he shops at Whole Foods, recycles, and keeps his property in a condition that prevents his neighbors from giving him dirty looks when he goes on his evening walks around the neighborhood. He orders the fresh catch in restaurants to keep his cholesterol down. He occasionally buys produce from the farmers’ market because it is closer to nature, and to support local agriculture.

None of those things are bad. They are simply lifestyle choices that he has made, a version of day-to-day life that makes him happy and comfortable, the way that all of us would like to be in our lives. If there is a negative aspect to the Jones lifestyle it is the assumption that his choices are superior to anyone else’s.

Moloka‘i residents—the people that Bob Jones has chosen to belittle—have made other choices. In his column, Jones criticizes the lack of fresh produce at the local market. He misses the vital fact that on Moloka‘i, home gardens are as common as two-car garages in Honolulu; fresh produce is still warm from the sun, with dirt clinging to its roots. When Moloka‘i talks about fresh fish, it is the fish we caught ourselves earlier that day.

Yes, life on Moloka‘i has its own unique challenges. Nobody wants to pay five dollars for a gallon of gas. More jobs would strengthen the local economy. We could use more medical care.

At the same time, living on Moloka‘i brings gifts you would not find if we became another suburb of Wailuku. The community has a bond and a sense of mutual support that has become too rare in modern society. Moloka‘i lives close to the land, and close to the heart.

Most importantly, Moloka‘i has stepped up to take control of its own destiny; Moloka‘i belongs to Moloka‘i. Large hotels and upscale housing developments do not fit into the vision that has grown naturally from what the island’s residents envision for themselves. Tourism may be part of that, along with responsible agriculture and appropriate energy industries. But it will be on the community’s own terms.

There are things in life that you can only sell once, because as soon as you do, you know you’ll never get it back. Moloka‘i’s heart, future, and destiny are among those things. If Bob Jones can’t see that, he should think about staying on his own lanai, enjoying the sounds of traffic going by.

Let’s Talk Story

Friday, October 10th, 2008

For a lot of us, one of the great memories of home comes from those times on the lanai, or around the kitchen table, where we just talk about what is going on around us. Who is doing this and that, what cousin is moving where, some politics, a little bit of just plain sharing the moment. Call it chewing the fat, wala‘au, talk story, it is more than sharing the news.

As a Senator representing a wonderfully complex district, I often wish I had more time to spend with every one of you. I learn great things in every conversation, feel your support and, sometimes, your disappointment or frustration. Talking with you is the best way I know to learn what is going on, and where your deepest concerns lie.

For my friends and ‘ohana on Moloka‘i, I know that there are day-to-day concerns that sometimes do not make it across the channel to the media on Maui or in Honolulu. Anyone with a deep understanding of Moloka‘i appreciates that the conversations in your homes and in the community are where the grassroots issues first come up.

I would like to make this column—which I hope will be the first in a long weekly series—a regular way for us to carry on this conversation. Serving our district means facing some simple geographical facts. We cover four islands, so it is not likely that everyone will gather in the same place. And while technology may make it seem that your neighbors on Lana‘i and in Hana are closer than ever, there are still challenges in seeing where your interests are the same, and where they may differ.

Frankly, we just won’t have as many chances to sit and talk story in the traditional ways. But rather than give up on that time-honored tradition, we will simply have to find new ways to keep the conversation going.

At the same time, I don’t want to be the person who comes to your house and won’t stop talking long enough for you to let you share your mana‘o too. Instead, I hope that this will be a place where we can share ideas. You can look forward to not only a report of what issues are at the top of the Senate’s agenda, but also what I am hearing in my community meetings with your neighbors. I will share my opinions, and I hope you will free to share your as well.

Of course, for this to work as a new version of an old-fashioned talk story session, it is up to you to speak up and join in. I know that sometimes community members feel that their representatives stop caring as soon as they get elected, or that we lose sight of their concerns once we land in Honolulu. Join me in overcoming those old ideas and artificial barriers. Call me at my Senate office, email me, or come to a community meeting and tell me what concerns you.
So let’s talk story.

Fake Funny Farms – Maui County redefines agriculture to include vacation rentals.

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

By Glenn Teves

It seems like we’re constantly changing the definition to words to suit our lifestyle changes and our response to money.  Once upon a time, agriculture meant the production of food, fiber, and timber. All of a sudden, this definition is being turned on its head with the recent enactment of a law that allows transient vacation rentals on agricultural lands. Has the County gone over the edge or do they know something that we don’t? 

Just like the song of the late 60’s by Cat Stevens, “Where do the children play”, my question now is “where do the farmers farm if they farm at all”. With some farm land in Maui County exceeding $500,000 an acre, probably the highest in the nation, who in their right mind will want to farm when they’ll be spending the rest of their life paying for the land. Farm land has shifted from a resource, as envisioned in our state constitution, to a commodity sold to the highest bidder and the County is taking the lead in making this happen.

Fake and funny farms dot the island from east to west, along with a new generation of pseudo-farmers all trying to find a way to get out of farming, yet still benefit from the zoning and tax breaks. Now, there’s a new crutch to lean on and make big bucks with transient vacation rentals, and bed and breakfasts.

I attended a Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Kona last week and the first question asked of everyone was, “What will be needed to create stronger local and regional food systems that are less reliant on imports from elsewhere?” Expecting responses such as farmers market and community-supported agriculture, my response was ‘a catastrophe’. The only way we will change in Maui County is when a disaster forces us to change. By that time, we’ll be eating each other.

Still, the question begs to be answered, “Who will grow our food when the farms are surrounded by houses with residents screaming about the tractor noise, dust, and funny smells and the farmers give up. This is already happening. But who really cares anyway! I still remember a farmer in Colorado I visited who used to spread manure on his fields from nearby feedlots each spring, and would receive a barrage of calls from irate neighbors. When asked, “What is that smell? He replied, “It’s the smell of money.”

Well, not anymore. Now with the New Wave Maui farming, you don’t even have to add manure or fertilizer to your fields. You can create a farm without even farming. All you have to do is construct transient vacation rentals on your farm land, and paste farm pictures on all the windows so your visitors think they’re staying on a farm. You can change the pictures by the seasons, such as classic Tuscany in the spring, or Napa Valley in the late summer.

You can create the ultimate in local cuisine by heading down to Safeway or Costco, buying all kinds of fruits, vegetables, fish and shrimp from Chile, Mexico, China, and who knows where, head back home, and whip up a luscious brunch for your unknowing visitors. No one would be the wiser, and visitors would have a once in a lifetime experience as a result. If you want to get fancy, you can spice things up and add a little more ambiance at the same time by tying a Holstein cow near the entrance to your rental units.

 

I would never have come up with this great idea on my own, and have to thank the county council and the mayor for thinking ‘outside the box’ and being on the cusp of regional land use planning. I hope they keep their thinking caps on, because I know this is only the beginning of some great ideas to come. If they run out of more ideas, I have some smart pills on hand that I can donate to them, but they have to move fast because it’s only good until my rabbit gets the runs.

Mele mai Nu Yoka mai

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

'O keia mo'olelo pokole e pili 'ana ia Iakona Poole. Ua hanau 'ia 'o ia ma Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ua noho 'o ia ma Nu Yoka no kekahi mau makahiki a ua hana 'o ia ma MTV. Ma MTV he kanaka a'oa'o 'o ia. Ua lohe mua 'o ia i na mele Hawai'i 5 makahiki i hala.Ua ho'omaka 'o ia me ka mele 'ana i na mele hapa-haole a laila ua ho'omaka 'o ia e mele i na mele Hawai'i. Ua hele mai 'o ia i Moloka'i no ke ALoha Music Camp ma ka makahiki 2007. A ma'o 'o ia i ho'olauna me 'anakala Pilipo. I kona wa ma ka Moloka'i ua a'o 'o 'anakala Pilipo iaia pehea e himeni i ka leo ki'eki'e. Ua mele pu 'o ia me 'anake Genoa Keawe. Ua ho'i mai 'o ia i Moloka'i e hana me 'anakala Pilipo a a'o i na mea Hawai'i.

Remembering the Role of Taro in Hawaii

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Annual Taro Variety Field Day will display taro varieties.

Mana Ulu, a variety that produces branching corms, makua, and makes yellow-colored poi.

By Alton S. Arakaki

Today rice is our primary source of carbohydrate for the energy our body requires to conduct our everyday activities. Hawaii doesn’t produce any rice or other carbohydrate grains.

Most of the grains we consume are naturally adapted and produced in the temperate regions of the world. People that live within tropical latitudes primarily depend on root crops that are more naturally adapted to the climatic conditions for their carbohydrate needs. Root crops such as true yams, sweet potato, cassava and taro are heavily depended on to provide daily rations of carbohydrate. Breadfruit is also a carbohydrate source.

Not too long in our distance past, native Hawaiians produced 100 percent of their dietary carbohydrate needs. Those needs primarily came from taro. It has been said that each person consumed seven to nine pounds of taro per day on the average.

If Michael Phelps, the golden U.S. Olympic swimmer, got the 12,000 calories per day he needs to swim by consuming, just for breakfast, three fried egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise, followed with two cups of coffee, five egg omelets, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate chip pancakes, it is conceivable that native Hawaiians consumed seven to nine pounds to perform their daily activities to survive.

At that consumption rate, it would require 1.5 taro plants per day, or 550 plants per year. That’s the equivalent of 2,555 to 3,300 pounds of taro per person per year.

Enough numbers, you do the rest in figuring out how much taro was required to feed the population of Hawaii of our distance past. Even with our modern sciences and technologies today, we don’t even come close to that production level in Hawaii. Not even with rice. This is something we need to think about collectively as island dwellers when talking about food security for Hawaii and our need for dietary carbohydrate.

In order to produce that much carbohydrate, native Hawaiians developed advance land management and agriculture systems. We still see some of those systems in upper kula lands and in river valleys. They also developed and grew many taro varieties, some that were adapted to specific land districts and ahupua’a of the islands. Since taro plants don’t produce seeds readily like corn or mango, ancient growers needed to be pretty smart to develop new varieties. It is still a mystery as to how the varieties came to be. Some believe that it happened by accident or by nature’s plant mutation, and others believed that there were a few who understood the art of producing viable taro seeds. They had taro varieties reserved for the Ali’i, ceremonies and for medicinal purposes. At one time, there were more than 300 varieties grown on our islands. Today we have less than 70.

The Cooperative Extension Service will be holding their Annual Taro Variety Field Day on Saturday, Sept. 6 starting at 9 a.m. More than 60 of the rarest native Hawaiian taro varieties will be displayed. There will be discussions on the taro varieties and on how to grow them.

There will be a limited amount of planting materials, huli, of Hawaiian taro varieties for you to take home to grow and contribute towards perpetuating our native Hawaiian taro. If you wish to take planting materials, please come in your field attire because taro sap will permanently stain your clothes, and bring your digging and cutting tools, labels, marking pens, ties and a container.

Alton S. Arakaki is an extension agent with the county.

Governor Approves Condemning of Oahu Lands

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Governor Approves Condemning of Oahu Lands

Commentary by DeGray Vanderbilt

There was overwhelming support from over 300 residents who attended last week’s Molokai community meeting on Aug. 20, for the Maui County Council to authorize the Mayor to utilize the county’s power of “eminent domain” to acquire the developed and undeveloped lands held by Molokai Properties Limited (Molokai Ranch).

The county’s use of its power of eminent domain is supported by a recent precedent.

A few weeks ago on June 4, 2008, Governor Linda Lingle signed into law Act 140. This law was enacted by the state legislature to give the governor the right to use eminent domain (condemnation) for the public good as a means of acquiring lands privately owned by a real estate development company.

The new law states that “the governor or the governor’s designee shall immediately initiate negotiations to acquire the properties held by Kuilima Resort Company.” These properties are more commonly known as the Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu.

Act 140 approved by the Governor further provides the following:

1. It is in the public interest to protect and preserve Hawaii’s cultural and historical heritage, and the proposed expansion of the Turtle Bay Resort on the island of Oahu is contrary to public interest;

2. It is in the public’s interest to acquire the public lands for preservation by purchasing those lands exercising the State’s power of eminent domain

3. Financing the acquisition may be by one or more of the following means: a) appropriations made by the legislature, b) general obligation bonds, c) exchange of public lands, d) federal funds, e) private funds, financing or donations, or f) any other means of financing the governor or the governor’s designee may negotiate.

State legislators concluded that the plan the Turtle Bay developer has for the Kahuku community is “contrary to public interest.” This conclusion mirrors how some Maui County officials and many Molokai residents feel about Molokai Properties Limited’s (MPL) “hunker down,” self-serving business plan the company is currently imposing on the Molokai community.

MPL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GuocoLeisure Limited, a billion-dollar foreign company based out of Singapore. The company’s new plan for Molokai calls for shedding the company’s employee and utility operations expenses by shutting down operations, and land banking its property until better economic times roll around.

A recent document approved for publication by MPL’s CEO Peter Nicholas characterizes the new business plan currently being imposed by GuocoLeisure on our small island community of 7,300 residents as the company’s “doomsday scenario” for Molokai.
 
County Has Same Power as State
The County has the same powers as the State to initiate eminent domain proceedings.

At last week’s meeting on Molokai, there was overwhelming support for the county to exercise its power.

Molokai Councilmember Danny Mateo, who attended the meeting along with county spokesperson Mahina Martin, was asked to have the County Council introduce a county resolution similar to Act 140 enacted by the state legislature.

Such a resolution could find that new shutdown plan of Molokai Properties is contrary to public interest, authorize Mayor Charmaine Tavares or her designee to negotiate the acquisition of all or a portion of the developed and undeveloped lands owned by Molokai Properties, and grant the mayor the authority to exercise the County’s power of eminent domain to acquire the lands if a negotiated sale is unsuccessful.

Funding the “fair value” acquisition sale price that is paid to MPL could happen through a consortium of individual and corporate investors, as well as government and other funding sources, such as non-profit investment entities with missions to perpetuate the protection of natural resource, cultural, historic and social environments.

A “Buy the Ranch” campaign being waged by the community allegedly has $100 million on tap through a combination of funds pledged by an alternative energy corporation and an environmental investor.

Governor’s Support for Turtle Bay
In the Governor’s State of the State speech to legislators earlier this year, she listed the following Molokai-sounding justifications, which led her to initiate a drive to acquire the lands at the Turtle Bay Resort for public good:

I believe this is a once-in-a-generation chance to preserve both a lifestyle for thousands of residents, and a part of Hawai‘i that millions the world over have come to love and identify as the real Hawai‘i.

The purchase of this important property will create an opportunity for the community to shape a vision for this part of the North Shore.

I believe in my heart that this is the right thing to do for those of us living today, and for those who will be born in the decades ahead.

And I believe this will be a defining moment for all of us – a moment that communicates to young people that we care more about their future than about our present.

The residents on the North Shore call it “keeping the country, country.”
 
I call it fulfilling commitments to future generations…and I ask everyone listening today to join me in this effort.
 
It (the North Shore) is a place we take visitors when we want them to experience the “real” Hawai‘i.
 
It is a place that gives us comfort just by being there, even if we don’t go there very often.
 
And it is a community of residents who have chosen the North Shore because it provides a slower, more rural way of living.

 
The Governor concluded by telling the legislators that it “would be naive for anyone to think this land acquisition (of Turtle Bay) will be easy.”

An invitation to last week’s Molokai community meeting was extended to Governor Lingle. She did not attend.

DeGray Vanderbilt is a 30-year resident of Molokai and recently stepped down as Chairman of the Molokai Planning Commission.

The True Cost of The Ranch’s Water Problem

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Timmy Leong looks at the old Molokai Ranch mountain water reservoir, which is filled by stream diversions in the Kamakou mountain range. 

Editorial by Walter Ritte

This problem will affect ALL of our pocketbooks on Molokai, as the county may one day be responsible for Molokai Ranch’s water companies.

Here are the costs proposed by the PUC now: Kaluakoi will increase from $3.18 to $4.48 per 1000 gallons. Kualapu`u and Maunaloa rates will go way up from $1.85 to a staggering $4.10 per 1000 gallons. These rates are arbitrary, unprecedented, and ridiculous. The state government is siding with big business and putting the solution to this water problem on the backs of the public.

Molokai Ranch mismanaged their water systems, and now wants to dump them. We need to realize what the actual costs of this abandonment are. 

Who will pay for the recent loss of permission to use the Molokai Irrigation System (MIS) as a means to transmit water from Well 17 to the West End? The cost will include an EA or EIS, and may very well include the need for a new pipeline from Kualapu`u to the West End

The Ranch also needs a new water permit to even use Well 17. Can you imagine the cost for these permit hearings before the State Water Commission? What’s more, the Ranch’s water supply from the mountain streams is now in jeopardy. Formal requests to implement “Instream Water Flow Standards” to protect the streams have been filed.

Add these three problems to the substandard water delivery system on the West End, and you begin to see the true picture of what the Ranch is dumping and what the true cost to ALL of us will be if and when the county takes over.     

To create a crisis, the Ranch is now jeopardizing our health and safety by threatening to shut down their utilities come the end of August. So how do we protect ourselves in spite of a governor who is supporting Molokai Ranch and telling the county what to do?

The first important step is solidarity; attend the Water Community Meeting at 6p.m. on Wednesday, August 20, at 6 p.m. at Mitchell Pauole Center. We will invite our elected officials, and we will present a public voice and positions on this issue. The amount of people turning out for this meeting will determine who will end up paying for these mismanaged water systems: you and I, or big business.

We will demand that the government hold Molokai Ranch responsible for the mismanagement of its water systems and not the community. We will demand a physical and financial audit of the water systems. We will call for eminent domain proceedings against Molokai Ranch lands. We will denounce the PUC and DCCA for their negligence and shameful roles against the public, whom they should have been protecting. We will decry this shameful and dangerous precedent the governor has set in allowing her agencies to bail out big business and place the burden on the rate payers.

We need the community’s support as we begin to organize and speak as one on August 20 at MPC. Don’t let the governor and Molokai Ranch get away with this one.

Monsanto Could be its Own Worst Enemy

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Using too much water could force the company to downsize.

Editorial by Todd Yamashita

There are some who will have you think that Monsanto employees are in danger of losing their jobs at the hands of environmentalist and activists. The biggest threat to Monsanto however, is its own growth and thirst for more water.

For the time being, Monsanto is obviously here to stay. Seed experimentation has been on Molokai for three decades and with a new multi-million dollar seed drying plant and hundreds of additional acres, there is no sign that this expanding corporation will be leaving the Friendly Isle any time soon.

Monsanto Molokai is an excellent company to work for. They are the largest private employer providing more than 150 jobs with some of the best wages and benefits in the ag-labor field. They also provide our local non-profits with thousands of dollars in grants and have generally been a good neighbor.

Monsanto has also hired laid off Molokai Ranch workers, helping Molokai’s economy to rebound.

Unfortunately, the biggest threat to Monsanto workers is Monsanto itself. Like most large corporations, Monsanto’s number one priority is to maximize profits. In this case it means planting as many acres as possible, and using a lot of water – a practice which could ultimately force the corporation to downsize.

Over the Limit
Last November, General Manager of Monsanto Molokai Ray Foster said that the company was sensitive to the island’s water needs and that Monsanto had a water conservation program for times of drought.

Last month however, amidst a 20% water cutbacks mandated by the Molokai Irrigation System (MIS), Monsanto is requesting an increase to its water use. However with water supply levels in the Kualapu`u reservoir over 60 million gallons short of where it was this time last year, many are left wondering where the water will come from?

The MIS was built for the Hawaiian Homesteaders which is why the law reserves two thirds of its water for Hawaiians. As the MIS becomes short on water due to dilapidation and drought, Hawaiian Homesteaders are beginning to feel the pressure.

Non-homestead ag-users like Monsanto currently account for 84% of MIS water consumption. Monsanto itself is using almost twice the amount of water of all 209 homestead users combined.

Homesteaders have gone through the courts to fight for their rights in the past (Hawaii State Supreme Court denies Molokai Ranch pumping permit Dec 26, 2007) and are guaranteed to return should water distribution remain lopsided.

Implausible Solutions
Monsanto is offering the DOA cash to increase pumping. While this might seem like a positive effort, it probably won’t help. The MIS is the only state-run irrigation system that regularly operates at a profit, yet it is the most dilapidated and mismanaged. Obviously, positive cash-flow doesn’t equate to a better system.

Although improvements are being made to one problematic area at a time, a system-wide overhaul of the MIS, which will take years, is the only thing that will increase higher sustainable water levels.

But more water won’t necessarily help either. As homesteads continue to grow (homestead water use increased 35% in 2007) non-homestead users like Monsanto will increasingly be held to their 1/3 allocation of MIS water.

Living Within Your Means
The corporate model of taking as much as possible doesn’t work on Molokai, it never has. In 1905, Molokai Ranch started the island’s first large scale sugar plantation – they pumped so much that their fresh water turned salty, killing the entire crop before the first harvest. A century later, the Ranch put companywide operations on the line to develop La`au Point –the development’s lack of water shut everything down.

Regardless of whether or not activists and environmentalists want Monsanto to continue growing and testing genetically modified corn, it is Monsanto’s responsibility to operate within the law. Hawaiian’s 2/3 right to water specifies the limit. If Monsanto continues expanding beyond their limits and beyond the threshold of Molokai’s water capacity, like Molokai Ranch, Monsanto will be forced to downsize.

The best thing we can do to protect the jobs of those who work at Monsanto, is to ask Monsanto to curb its growth in proportion to the available water resources.

The Utility Dog and Pony Show

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

PUC a disgrace to Molokai residents, needs to stop “kowtowing to Mr. Gotbucks.”

Editorial By Robert Brokate

The Public Utility Commission (PUC) meeting in Maunaloa last Tuesday has once again highlighted the woeful inadequacies of our government’s civil servants. One was left in a quandary as to what is driving the PUC train, but whatever the driver may be it has drastically veered from the tracks.

The justification and purpose of a PUC is to protect the public’s interests (thus the name Public Utility Commission) against the abuses and wrongdoings of the utilities because by nature the utilities are monopolies and are prone to abuse and wrongdoing (recall the Enron energy debacle).

However, it appears that the Hawai’i PUC sees their function as not protecting the interests of the miscreant public. The Hawai’i PUC apparently interprets their function to be lackeys for billionaire Quek Leng Chang, who is the owner of Molokai Ranch’s parent company GuocoLeisure, to protect the interests of the Ranch against the ungrateful, malcontent public.

The Hawai’i PUC is in effect saying, “Yes, Mr. Billionaire, we (the Hawai’i PUC) will gladly exempt you from all of the nasty, tiresome nonsense of following the law and will do all of your dirty work for you. And any time you should step into something unpleasant, we will joyfully lick your boots clean.”
 
What the Hawai’i PUC is doing is going to open the floodgates for utilities throughout Hawai’i; any utility that wants a rate increase will just have to submit an unsubstantiated, unaudited, unverified income statement depicting a loss and the Hawai’i PUC will be compelled to fall all over themselves providing a “temporary rate increase.” The Hawai'i PUC is establishing the precedent with their current actions.

The Ranch has remedies available. They can sell the utilities. They can file for a rate increase as the law allows. Or they can file for bankruptcy and the court can take the assets and determine the proper course of action. It is not the Hawai’i PUC’s function to work for the Ranch when the PUC’s wages are paid by the public. The Hawai’i PUC should only explain the options available to the Ranch and explain that the Ranch cannot cease operations of their utilities without a court order releasing them of their public responsibility.

Should the Ranch follow through on their threat to cease operations without a court release, Maunaloa Highway would be bumper to bumper with tort lawyers eager to have former utility customers sign on to their class action law suits against the Chang, Ranch CEO Peter Nicholas, and probably the PUC.

So, Hawai’i PUC, quit kowtowing to Mr. Gotbucks; get off your knees and show a little self respect. You are embarrassing all of us. In the same breath, KUDOS to the County, Mayor Travares, et al, for their appropriate response and providing a ray of hope that our government is not totally dysfunctional.