By Henry Curtis
Governor Neil Abercrombie will pick a new head of Hawai`i Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA).
This new cabinet member will pick the Executive Director of the Division of Consumer Advocacy (DCA).
This person, the Consumer Advocate, represents you, the public, in all proceedings before the Hawai`i Public Utilities Commission (Commission).
These proceedings focus on electric rates, transmission line location, coal, climate change, air pollution discharges, anything involving the electric utility, or any other utility.
Even if you could find their office, which is located in a downtown building, and is hidden within the building in a highly irregularly shaped hallway maze which requires you to go through two closed hallway doors, the office itself is locked to keep the public out.
As a rule the Consumer Advocate dislikes cross-examining HECO in regulatory cases, preferring to work behind the scenes and filing joint settlements with the Commission.
The following are recent quotes made by the Consumer Advocate during the Lingle Administration. As far as the public record is concerned, all of the statements below are still the official position of the Consumer Advocate.
* “Without knowing the specific facts under which global warming is expected to occur, and whether the islands will get impacted, as well as the extent of such impact, if any, the Consumer Advocate is unable to determine the reasonableness of basing Maui’s future on oil.”
* “People concerned with the impact of biofuel production have pointed to the ‘food versus fuel’ observation as one of the criticisms of biofuel production internationally. Whether the ‘food versus fuel’ critique is an ‘issue of great concern around the world’ is a judgment call subject to each person's individual beliefs and personal outlook on the subject. The Consumer Advocate declines to qualitatively describe the relative importance of the issue beyond acknowledging that the critique does exist.”
* “Dedicated biomass-to-electricity crops, biofuels produced from agricultural crops, it’s by-products, or waste products, would have an environmental benefit of being net zero in the overall carbon balance.”
* "Although ethanol presently is not being produced in the State as fuel, a recent advertisement by HECO indicates that six ethanol plants have been proposed for the islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island; and that three of Hawaii's largest land owners have formed a partnership to research the best crops and technology to make biofuels locally. Thus, there seems to be significant interest by several companies to install ethanol plants in the State."
In October 2008 the Consumer Advocate and Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) signed an Energy Agreement which states in part:
* “It is necessary to transmit the wind power produced on the other islands by undersea cable systems to Oahu.”
* "The parties [HECO-Consumer Advocate] are looking to the development of a series of projects including, but not limited, to ...Hamakua Biomass (25 MW) or Hu Honua Biomass (22 MW)"
* “The parties will support continued federal tax support for biofuels and will seek their extension to cover the full range of biofuel products including crude palm oil (CPO).”
* “Guiding principles in GHG [greenhouse gas] reduction measures include ... a preference for incentives and market-based measures over regulatory penalties”
* “EPA’s Regional Haze Rules, designed to protect visibility in National Parks, are ambiguous as to the effect of naturally occurring haze. Controlling visibility impairing emissions from Company [HELCO’s electric generation] units would be fruitless and very expensive.”
* “Allow electrical generation units to switch to green fuels (biofuels) without triggering New Source Review (NSR). Fuel switching could result in increased emissions (primarily NOx), potentially triggering NSR. Costs of NOx control on existing units switching to biofuels would be exorbitant with no appreciable benefit”
* “The parties further agree to request Commission suspension of the current intra-governmental wheeling docket”
* “Because of the uncertainties of GHG [greenhouse gas] legislation at the State and federal level, the parties agree to suspend any decision to implement a State REC [renewable energy credit] system until such time when these legislative actions become clear”
HECO and the Consumer Advocate filed a joint statement in the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) proceeding: “One of the greatest challenges to maintaining system reliability and power quality is uncertainty regarding the addition of new resources onto an island grid. One way to reduce the level of uncertainty is to set certain reasonable limits upon the size and system penetration of FIT resources during a particular period of time.” The Commission adopted this approach, limiting penetration of renewable energy.
Why does HECO need a Utility Advocate if they have all the marbles?
Henry Curtis
Ililani.media@gmail.com
# # #
Governor Neil Abercrombie will pick a new head of Hawai`i Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA).
This new cabinet member will pick the Executive Director of the Division of Consumer Advocacy (DCA).
This person, the Consumer Advocate, represents you, the public, in all proceedings before the Hawai`i Public Utilities Commission (Commission).
These proceedings focus on electric rates, transmission line location, coal, climate change, air pollution discharges, anything involving the electric utility, or any other utility.
Even if you could find their office, which is located in a downtown building, and is hidden within the building in a highly irregularly shaped hallway maze which requires you to go through two closed hallway doors, the office itself is locked to keep the public out.
As a rule the Consumer Advocate dislikes cross-examining HECO in regulatory cases, preferring to work behind the scenes and filing joint settlements with the Commission.
The following are recent quotes made by the Consumer Advocate during the Lingle Administration. As far as the public record is concerned, all of the statements below are still the official position of the Consumer Advocate.
* “Without knowing the specific facts under which global warming is expected to occur, and whether the islands will get impacted, as well as the extent of such impact, if any, the Consumer Advocate is unable to determine the reasonableness of basing Maui’s future on oil.”
* “People concerned with the impact of biofuel production have pointed to the ‘food versus fuel’ observation as one of the criticisms of biofuel production internationally. Whether the ‘food versus fuel’ critique is an ‘issue of great concern around the world’ is a judgment call subject to each person's individual beliefs and personal outlook on the subject. The Consumer Advocate declines to qualitatively describe the relative importance of the issue beyond acknowledging that the critique does exist.”
* “Dedicated biomass-to-electricity crops, biofuels produced from agricultural crops, it’s by-products, or waste products, would have an environmental benefit of being net zero in the overall carbon balance.”
* "Although ethanol presently is not being produced in the State as fuel, a recent advertisement by HECO indicates that six ethanol plants have been proposed for the islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island; and that three of Hawaii's largest land owners have formed a partnership to research the best crops and technology to make biofuels locally. Thus, there seems to be significant interest by several companies to install ethanol plants in the State."
In October 2008 the Consumer Advocate and Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) signed an Energy Agreement which states in part:
* “It is necessary to transmit the wind power produced on the other islands by undersea cable systems to Oahu.”
* "The parties [HECO-Consumer Advocate] are looking to the development of a series of projects including, but not limited, to ...Hamakua Biomass (25 MW) or Hu Honua Biomass (22 MW)"
* “The parties will support continued federal tax support for biofuels and will seek their extension to cover the full range of biofuel products including crude palm oil (CPO).”
* “Guiding principles in GHG [greenhouse gas] reduction measures include ... a preference for incentives and market-based measures over regulatory penalties”
* “EPA’s Regional Haze Rules, designed to protect visibility in National Parks, are ambiguous as to the effect of naturally occurring haze. Controlling visibility impairing emissions from Company [HELCO’s electric generation] units would be fruitless and very expensive.”
* “Allow electrical generation units to switch to green fuels (biofuels) without triggering New Source Review (NSR). Fuel switching could result in increased emissions (primarily NOx), potentially triggering NSR. Costs of NOx control on existing units switching to biofuels would be exorbitant with no appreciable benefit”
* “The parties further agree to request Commission suspension of the current intra-governmental wheeling docket”
* “Because of the uncertainties of GHG [greenhouse gas] legislation at the State and federal level, the parties agree to suspend any decision to implement a State REC [renewable energy credit] system until such time when these legislative actions become clear”
HECO and the Consumer Advocate filed a joint statement in the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) proceeding: “One of the greatest challenges to maintaining system reliability and power quality is uncertainty regarding the addition of new resources onto an island grid. One way to reduce the level of uncertainty is to set certain reasonable limits upon the size and system penetration of FIT resources during a particular period of time.” The Commission adopted this approach, limiting penetration of renewable energy.
Why does HECO need a Utility Advocate if they have all the marbles?
Henry Curtis
Ililani.media@gmail.com
# # #
0 comments:
Post a Comment