Hawaii
Hawaii Is Bailing Out Its Wildfire-Causing Energy Company
Last August, a deadly wildfire tore through Hawaii, erasing the town of Lahaina and killing over one hundred people. The state’s publicly traded utility corporation was found responsible; it is now facing a deluge of claims from residents seeking compensation for damages, as well as lawsuits from the insurance companies that have been paying out disaster claims.
Hawaii’s electricity is provided by a for-profit utility supplier that is granted monopoly power over energy distribution. In addition to its dominance of Hawaii’s power grid, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., (HEI) enjoys almost complete autonomy in the physical management of its power lines on the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Molokai. Only residents of the island of Kauaʻi maintain some semblance of control over their electricity, through a resident-owned energy cooperative. When massive winds from Hurricane Dora blew into Maui, HEI subsidiary Maui Electric Company (MECO) refused to respond to early calls to shut down the grid. This came even as fire-safety officials warned that a flash drought put most of the state in a Red Flag Warning, the highest possible fire alert issued by the National Weather Service.
More than thirty power lines went down as winds battered the island, but MECO remained silent — apparently refusing to cut power to downed lines that were sparking fires. In the fallout of the fires, it came to light that MECO had not properly insulated wires or maintained poles and surrounding vegetation. These are standard precautionary measures in most states, especially ones with significant wildfire and windstorm risk. Many lines were bare — i.e., lacking any insulation at all — a direct violation of state regulations dating back to 2002 that significantly increased the probability of ignition in surrounding vegetation.
Now, as HEI struggles to pay for damages, state regulators look set to bail out the negligent utility company.
Five months after the fire, legal fees, disaster relief bills, and settlements are piling up. A battery of personal claims against HEI prompted 142 insurance companies, including USAA, State Farm, Island Insurance, and Tradewind, to seek reimbursement for over $1 billion in claims they had paid to residents as of December 2023. The companies are following the lead of Maui County, which similarly filed suit against HEI on the grounds that the corporation’s negligence is to blame for property damage and loss of life. Recent analysis estimates HEI could be on the hook for over $4.9 billion when the ashes clear. The corporation itself was only insured up to $165 million, a drop in the bucket compared to what they owe in damages combined with what insurers are seeking in reimbursement.
This scheme by insurance companies puts them in league with individual residents and the county in civil suits against HEI. This is not uncommon in catastrophe underwriting, as insurance companies will leave no stone unturned in trying to mitigate losses from natural disasters.
To that end, insurers often use gray areas in coverage to deny consumers’ claims related to flood or hurricane damage. But as the $1 billion in insurance payouts suggest, the insurance companies don’t seem to be fighting consumers’ claims. When it’s evident that a battery of claims cannot be denied, will not be sufficiently covered by reinsurance (the insurance that insurance companies themselves take out to protect against significant losses), and cannot be stalled in court, industry-wise lawyers will go after the next best offering: in this case, the utility company left holding the bag.
Soon after the announcement that the company had failed to de-energize its grid, the corporation’s long- and short-term bond ratings were downgraded by two of the “Big Three” credit-rating agencies, with Fitch lowering HEI’s grade to B on Rating Watch Negative and S&P lowering it to B-. The third of the Big Three, Moody’s, put HEI “under review for downgrade.” This means that lending companies would charge extremely high rates on anything HEI borrowed to pay its bills, whether those bills be to the people of Hawaii, state conservation efforts, insurance lawsuits, an infrastructure overhaul, or disaster relief funds.
But HEI has an important friend ready to help: the state of Hawaii. On January 23, state legislators introduced measures drafted by HEI to safeguard the company from bankruptcy by allowing it to raise costs to residents and issue a new bond covering the costly bill for starting the wildfire. Essentially, the state plans on issuing a low-APR, no-limit credit card that HEI can use to pay its bills, with minimal risk to the long-term financial health of the corporation. The monopoly’s survival is crucial to the state of Hawaii, which would lose 95 percent of its electrical coverage should HEI go bankrupt and cease operations. It is also crucial to the company’s boardroom. Some supporters of the bailout say it is ultimately the best bet for residents of Hawaii, so long as the bonds are used to fund grid updates rather than lawsuits from insurance companies. The current deal would allow HEI to push the cost of the bonds — including interest — onto residents immediately; supporters argue that this would theoretically allow for avoidance of massive consumer rate hikes, which would inevitably follow in the long term should HEI be forced to borrow on the open market. Better to start paying a little bit extra over many years than a lot extra years down the road, when it comes time to pay back the high-rate bonds. But this crowd ignores the bigger picture — that the private debt of a for-profit company will be foisted on consumers regardless.
Whether in the short or long term, consumers are being made liable for the fire, the immediate costs, and the ensuing market fallout. Even if a resident receives an insurance payout, the insurance company is passing the ball to HEI, which is passing it to the state, which is ultimately turning it back over to the resident.
HEI vice president of corporate communications James Kelly claims that the utility doesn’t intend to use the bond proceeds to cover legal claims. But the state is not imposing any safeguards to ensure this, and there are no mechanisms to enforce transparency. In fact, legislators seem to have the opposite in mind — litigation and settlement costs are explicitly covered by the bonds.
An important question for Kelly, then, is how the utility does intend to process over $4.9 billion in legal claims if its current equity and insurance backing is so insufficient as to require a generous bailout by Hawaii residents. Why else would HEI directly include litigation and settlement contingencies in the legislative measure the company itself drafted, if not to use the bonds to cover those costs?
Pacific Gas and Electric Company — California’s energy utility — went through its own equity crisis following the 2018 Camp Fire. That fire resulted in at least eighty-five deaths and was found to be the result of similarly mismanaged power lines. A recent decision by the California judiciary hopes to save their for-profit energy corporation from the same type of bankruptcy facing HEI with big rate hikes, brought about by an $11 billion insurance settlement. Both disasters might have been avoided with state-run utilities or publicly held energy cooperatives, which would be democratically accountable to residents. Had there been public, democratic oversight in place of a concern with profit maximization, HEI might have taken measures that prevented the wildfires from starting in the first place — like implementing the 2002 infrastructure regulation. Hawaii could take notes from the publicly owned New York Power Authority (NYPA), for instance. NYPA is the lowest-cost energy provider in New York State, which is theoretically bound by regulations set by the state comptroller.
Instead, Hawaiian consumers are not only bearing the burden of loss of life, land, and property caused by corporate negligence — they’re being forced to pick up the bill for the corporation’s negligence too. Here, utility deregulation has taken to such an extreme that the company at fault is allowed to build its own legislative life raft. This state of affairs is par for the course with private utilities: Hawaii needs HEI as the owner and operator of the vast majority of the state’s electrical grid. Yet the utility needs the state of Hawaii to help it avoid being eaten by the bigger fish it exposes itself to as a profit-generating corporation. Until utilities are publicly controlled, corporate boardrooms will dictate who ultimately pays utilities’ financial burden.
Cupping Commerical Winners from left: Tom Greenwell of Konaʻs Kopiko Farms, Masaru Hanazawa of Konaʻs Mauka Meadows Coffee Farm, Louis Daniele of Ka’u Coffee Mill and not pictured Konaʻs Hula Daddy. (courtesy Hawaii Coffee Association)
(BIVN) – The winners of this year’s Hawaiʻi Coffee Association cupping contest have been announced.
The Hawaiʻi Coffee Association’s 15th Annual Statewide Coffee Cupping Competition took place during the 29th HCA conference, held from July 18 to 20 at the Ala Moana Hotel in Waikiki.
“We are thrilled with this year’s turnout and seeing such enthusiastic participation in our diverse range of presentations,” says conference chair Juli Burden of the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center. “This support is a testament to the dedication of the coffee community here in Hawaii.”
From a Hawaii Coffee Association news release:
Statewide Cupping Competition Results
A total of 103 entries, up from 68 in 2023, vied in the 15th Statewide Hawaii Coffee Association Cupping Competition. Brittany Horn, HCA cupping committee chair and co-owner of Pacific Coffee Research (PCR), notes the competition’s 51 percent higher turnout is likely due to a positive bounce-back after the 2020 introduction of Coffee Leaf Rust and a high-yield year.
“Additionally, the competition committee brought back the commercial division this year,” adds Horn. “In a similar manner to an auction, the commercial division requires a two-pound sample be submitted representative of a 300-pound lot.”
Cupping Competition Winner of Hawaii (Hilo and Puna) District: Deaus Beacomo of Hilo Coffee Company with cupping chair Brittany Horn (courtesy Hawaii Coffee Association)
The annual competition received 20 commercial and 83 creative division entries. The top three scoring coffees of the 103 entries were in the creative division and all hailed from Kona. This division is reserved for smallholder farms with entries under the direct control of owners.
Taking first place overall was a fruit-dried (natural process), 36-hour anaerobic fermentation Geisha variety with yeast inoculation produced by Geisha Kona Coffee earning a record final score of 87.83 points. Monarch Coffee Farm entered a 36-hour ferment parchment-dried (washed) Geisha variety placing second with a score of 87.40. Uluwehi Coffee Farm received a score of 87.25 with a 100-hour ferment with K1 yeast and fruit-dried (natural process) SL34 variety.
The top 10 highest scoring coffees were recognized and awards were also presented to the top coffees produced in Hawaii Department of Agriculture-recognized growing regions located throughout the islands. Top placing coffees by district were all from the creative division. They included Miranda’s Farms of Ka‘u with a parchment-dried Geisha scoring 85.63 and O’o Farms of Maui earning 84.20 with a pulp-dried (honey-process) Red Catuai variety. On O’ahu, Waialua Estate’s 72-hour ferment and fruit-dried Typica earned 83.42. Hilo Coffee Company of the Hawaii region (encompassing Hilo and Puna) scored an 80.63 with their 72-hour ferment Typica and Hog Heaven Coffee’s Typica of Hamakua earned 80.58.
Cupping Creative Winners of Ka’u from left: Jose & Berta Miranda of Miranda Farms, Joan Obra of Rusty’s Hawaiian Farm, Louis Daniele of Ka’u Coffee Mill (courtesy Hawaii Coffee Association)
Coffees in the commercial division were bested by Hula Daddy’s of Kona’s parchment-dried and yeast-innoculated Typica with 84.29 points. Kona’s Mauka Meadows’ parchment-dried and 24-hour ferment Typica and Kona’s Kopika Farm’s parchment-dried Red Bourbon tied for second place with a score of 82.63. Ka’u Coffee Mill followed in scoring 81.63 with a pulp-dried Typica. Commercial entrants can be growers or processors with corporate brands and multi-estate coffees being eligible.
“I was so impressed with the top scores from this year’s competition,” noted Horn. “The Top Ten’s average score was an 86.6—up from 85.48 last year—and all coffees in the Top Ten scored over 85 points.”
Cupping Creative Winners of Kona from left: Douglas McKanna of Geisha Kona Coffee, Abigail and Sal Munoz of Monarch Coffee Farm, Franck Carisey of Uluwehi Coffee Farm. (courtesy Hawaii Coffee Association)
Kona-based PCR (Pacific Coffee Research [PCR]) organized the competition utilizing a cupping panel composed of local and global coffee professionals led by Madeleine Longoria Garcia, PCR co-owner. “Judges from around the world applied to participate in this yearʻs competition and were invited based on their experience, training and opportunity for engaging with Hawaiiʻs coffee producers,” notes Longoria Garcia.
The panel of sensory judges included:
• Lora Botanova – Production Roaster of Big Island Coffee Roasters, Q Arabica Grader
• Alex Brooks -Independent Consultant, Q Arabica Grader
• Krude Che – Hao Lin-Founder of Taiwan Coffee Laboratory, Q Arabica Instructor, SCA AST, Director with the Taiwan Coffee Association
• Madeleine Longoria Garcia – Co-Owner of Pacific Coffee Research, Q Arabica Assistant Instructor, Vice President of Synergistic Hawai’i Agriculture Council
• Marc Marquez – Director of Coffee, Q Arabica Grader
• Oliver Stormshak – Co-owner, President, and Green Coffee Buyer of Olympia Coffee, Oliver’s Custom Coffee and Moonrise Bakery; Q Arabica GraderHorn served as head competition facilitator and was assisted by PCR’s Meg Duka and Head Roaster Eric Musil.
The panel employed the standard Specialty Coffee Association’s cupping methodology and scoring format. It is a form of scientific sensory analysis where coffees are evaluated and scored based on a variety of subtle characteristics: flavor, aroma, acidity, aftertaste, body, balance, overall cup experience, presence of sweetness, lack of defect and uniformity.
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii County’s prosecuting attorney said a Hilo woman has been charged with prohibited possession of a rifle and ammo as well as felony drug offenses.
Police said Jackie Carter, 30, was arrested and charged following a vehicle traffic stop off Kilauea Avenue.
According to police reports, after executing a search warrant of the vehicle Carter was driving, officers recovered a Remington bolt action rifle and live .243 ammunition.
Officials said Carter was charged with the following offenses:
- Ownership or possession of a firearm prohibited
- Ownership or possession of ammunition prohibited
- Promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree (possess any amount of methamphetamine)
- Promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree (possess any amount of oxycodone hydrochloride)
- Promoting a harmful drug in the fourth degree (possess any amount of alprazolam)
- Driving without a license
- Not having no-fault insurance
The prosecutor’s office said Carter faces a penalty of a five-year prison term or four years probation and up twelve months in jail.
Officials said she remains in custody in lieu of $84,000 bail.
Police ask anyone with information on the incident to call CrimeStoppers at (808) 961-8300.
Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Carissa Moore is the most decorated competitive surfer in Hawaii’s history, topping former World Champs John John Florence, Andy Irons and Sunny Garcia.
And she’s the only Hawaii surfer to ever win Olympic gold in surfing.
Of course, Duke Kahanamoku won multiple medals, but those were in swimming.
“It was super, super special to you know, I felt like through the Olympic journey, last time, I felt like I got to learn a lot about Duke Kahanamoku and his legacy and feel a deeper connection and pride for where I come from, the place treally raised me, the waves, my community and being able to like, represent and surf for something bigger than myself,” Moore said.
Moore competed in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, which was held in 2021 due to the pandemic, and became the first-ever winner of the Olympic gold medal in women’s shortboard surfing.
“Obviously getting to win in Tokyo in 2021 was so so special. But so many things had to fall into place. And so I don’t really feel too much pressure to have to back it up,” she said. “The Olympics far exceeded my expectations that I had, it was the first time so I didn’t really know what was going to happen or how it was gonna change surfing or, you know, if it was just gonna be like another CT event.”
“But it definitely did feel like a bigger stage.”
That’s in the rear view mirror now. Since the landmark victory, Moore has been able to get some me-time.
Previous Coverage: Carissa Moore is stepping away from competitive surfing, but she left a lasting impact
“So I, I’ve actually got to have a few months to just relax and go to Japan with my Nana and my sister. And, you know, I decided to step away from competing full time this year to focus on the Olympics, but also have some time to like, do other things. So it’s been a nice balance of both,” Moore explained.
In preparation for the Olympics, Moore has been logging a considerable amount of time training down in Tahiti on a wave that is not for the faint of heart.
“It’s one of the most intense, intimidating, challenging waves to surf, you really have to have a high level of skill to like read the wave and navigate the steep takeoff. And obviously, there’s a huge risk involved. There’s a shallow reef and you could get very hurt, but you could also have the ride of your life. Comfortable level is, you know, it’s getting there. I think the more than I spend time at the wave and hopefully learn and, and you know, just get the reps up, that will help me to feel more confident. But at this point, I don’t, I don’t know if you can ever feel like 100% comfortable,” Moore said.
Then there’s the competition, the best of the best will be there, including one Tahitian woman who has the luxury of a home break advantage.
“Everyone’s earned their spot and are very, very talented and experienced,” Moore said. “And I’m gonna have to bring my A game if I want to do well there and put in the work.”
Among Moore’s accolades is 11 national titles, five world titles and the Olympic gold title. While she’s a fierce competitor in the water, Moore says it takes a lot to tap into that side of her.
“It’s definitely not natural for me to like, just be super competitive, or confrontational. But like, you have to have a little bit of that like hunger and drive and fire and like get up close and personal at times,” she added.
When asked if another Olympic gold medal could a be trigger back to competing for the world championship again, she responded:
“I don’t know honestly, I haven’t really thought too much further than this summer I’m just trying to really simplify things… I will definitely give myself some space to kind of figure out what I want to do next.”
Win or lose, Moore’s next move will involve her Moore Aloha Foundation which aims to help girls and women navigate the waves of mental health and wellness, and create a life of positivity, purpose and passion.
Her message to young people?
“If I had any advice to the young ones coming up, or just anyone in general, I think just this belief that anything really is possible with hard work and dedication and a lot of love and a lot of aloha. Yeah, you can achieve your wildest dreams. I truly believe that.”
Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
Team USA wins its first medal of the Paris Summer Olympics
Nebraska fisherman reels in new fish species in state: 'Bright orange with turquoise'
Cat in Texas weighing 26 pounds is placed on diet after animal rescuers step in
Tennessee girl charged with suffocating cousin, 8, in her sleep after fight over iPhone
Southern California man hospitalized after suspect steals coffee cart, leads police on wild chase
See it: Tesla crashes into Columbus convention center at 70 mph
Fox News Politics: Georgia the whole day through
Colorado Rockies game no. 116 thread: Zac Gallen vs José Ureña
Death of missing Oregon girl found in stream ruled homicide
At least 2 dead as tornadoes hit Alabama, damage homes across Southeast
Team USA wins its first medal of the Paris Summer Olympics
Trump announces to crowd he 'just took off the last bandage' at faith event after assassination attempt
Where are the world’s millionaires and how is wealth divided globally?
Sonya Massey killing: Black woman died from gunshot wound to head, confirms autopsy; attorney calls shooting 'senseless' – Times of India
Park Police union says officers ‘did everything they could’ during DC anti-Israel riot
-
World1 week agoOne dead after car crashes into restaurant in Paris
-
Midwest1 week agoMichigan rep posts video response to Stephen Colbert's joke about his RNC speech: 'Touché'
-
News1 week agoVideo: Young Republicans on Why Their Party Isn’t Reaching Gen Z (And What They Can Do About It)
-
Movie Reviews1 week agoMovie Review: A new generation drives into the storm in rousing ‘Twisters’
-
Politics1 week agoFox News Politics: The Call is Coming from Inside the House
-
News1 week agoVideo: J.D. Vance Accepts Vice-Presidential Nomination
-
World1 week agoTrump to take RNC stage for first speech since assassination attempt
-
News1 week agoRNC speakers want to separate the president from the person to show softer side of Trump