With a piddling fraction of a $146 million Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) fund being loaned out over two years, it is easy to understand legislators’ frustration with the program. But will a new measure that the Legislature is poised … Continued
The Hawai‘i Green Infrastructure Au- thority (HGIA) is required to deliver quarterly reports on its progress in distributing Green Energy Market Securitization loans and advancing the state’s goals of energy independence to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). If House Bill … Continued
House Bill 957 has been enthusiastically supported by the Department of Education (DOE), the teachers’ union, parents, contractors, and others too numerous to list here. It calls for allowing up to $46.4 million in Green Energy Market Securitization funds to … Continued
When the state’s Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) loan program was established in 2013, all parties involved believed that customers who took out loans for installation of photovoltaic and other energy saving technologies would have the option of paying off … Continued
The state of Hawai‘i has won a major preliminary battle in its years-long effort to condemn a parcel of vacant land at Ma`alaea Harbor that it has leased, at sky-high rates, since 1994. At a hearing April 27, 2nd Circuit … Continued
Kahului Airport Powered by Biogas? The state Department of Transportation is seeking approval to enter into a 20-year contract to purchase biogas from Maui Resource Recovery Facility, LLC (MRRF), that will be used to provide electrical power to the Kahului … Continued
One of the companies that is involved in attempting to develop about 1,000 acres of land near Waikoloa Village, on the island of Hawai`i, has filed a complaint in state court that seeks $200 million in damages from the state, … Continued
As the contested case hearing over a permit to build the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea drew to a close, one of the last witnesses to testify was Mililani Trask, a practicing attorney well known for her involvement in … Continued
Testimony in the protracted second contested case hearing on the Conservation District Use Application (CDUA) for the Thirty Meter Telescope concluded on March 2, after 44 days of hearings over nearly six months and 71 witnesses. The next stages in … Continued
As the evidentiary portion of the contested case hearing for the Thirty Meter Telescope wound down last month, a witness whose testimony seemed to threaten the very foundation of the Conservation District Use Permit for the observatory near the Mauna … Continued