I think this comment from “Skeptical once again” that came in yesterday deserves to be promoted to a regular post, so here goes….
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Here’s an interesting blog entry by Henry Curtis from Disappeared News regarding the Big Wind.

It seems that the PUC has been frustrated with what seems to be habitual sneakiness on HECO’s part.

Here is the first part of the story:

“A few years ago the Public Utilities Commission approved a new Competitive Bidding process for new electrical generation. Just beating the requirement for competitive bidding, HECO filed a Request For Proposal [RFP] in 2008 seeking renewable energy projects on O`ahu ranging from 5-100 MW each. Castle & Cooke and First Wind Hawaii each submitted proposals for large wind farms (350-400 MW) on Lana`i and Moloka`i and connecting the wind farms to O`ahu via an undersea high voltage transmission line. On December 31, 2008, HECO reached an agreement with Castle & Cooke and First Wind to bifurcate or split their proposals, accepting 200 MW from each of them. The Public Utilities Commission ruled that this whole process was highly irregular, but agreed to it in the interest of meeting State renewable energy goals. The Commission gave a deadline of March 2011 to completing the rough financial terms of the agreements.”

But that is just the first part of the PUCs frustration with HECOs apparent connivance.

“Castle & Cooke met the deadline, First Wind failed to do so. Thereupon, HECO told the PUC there was a secret part of the HECO- Castle & Cooke and First Wind agreement that allowed HECO to re-assign First Wind’s proposal to Castle & Cooke, who in tern, could give it to Pattern Energy, who in tern would be financially assisted by Biological Capital. First Wind challenged this interpretation.”

The PUC is often cast in public discourse as the rubber stamp of HECO, but the PUC’s reaction would suggest that it is quite independent of HECO and quite critical of both HECO and the Big Wind project, as the rest of the entry would suggest.

“On July 14, 2011 the PUC rejected this convoluted process. Instead the Commission proposed that competitive bidding be used to secure First Wind’s 200 MW of Moloka`i wind energy. “It should be noted that by requiring a new RFP [Request For Proposal] , the commission does not intend to favor particular energy resources or geographical locations over another. Instead, the commission seeks to encourage a greater number of renewable developers to enter into the process. Based on the foregoing, the commission hereby directs HECO to submit to the commission a new RFP according to the Framework for Competitive Bidding. The new RFP shall be for a minimum of 200 MW of renewable energy.” The Commission’s ruling added: “the commission wishes to stress that such findings are not meant to illustrate an endorsement of the inter-island renewable energy project, nor has it made a substantive determination of the project’s viability. The commission reserves the right to revisit any and all aspects of a project’s viability when HECO makes its formal Application for approval of any power purchase agreement.”

Civil Beat also has a story on this.

In other news, here’s a column in the Star Advertiser by Richard Borreca that points out how the Abercrombie administration seems to be moving itself away from its earlier various energy initiatives.

Borecca writes of the Big Wind:

“Not mentioned in Abercrombie’s plan is the so-called Big Wind project on Molokai and Lanai. It is easily the biggest, most controversial neighbor island development since the ill-fated Hawaii Superferry project during the Lingle administration. During a speech last week, Abercrombie stopped short of saying he would fight to the death for windmills on Molokai and Lanai, but he was adamant about a cable providing power from the neighbor islands to Honolulu. “I’m working so hard to get the cable. … It has to be done on an island-wide basis; we all have to share in the cost. We have to see this as something we all have to do,” Abercrombie said.”

What is interesting is that the Big Wind is not in the administration’s plans.

In fact, although Abercrombie has been a strong supporter of the inter-island cable, whenever he talks about the cable, he links it with developing geothermal energy on the Big Island.

The point here is that some of us have been assuming that the fix is in, that the status quo has been conniving to establish a centralized energy grid in the face of immanent change in trends of energy development.

What we find here, however, is evidence that the elite is largely skeptical of the Big Wind project.

Now, HECO is of course big on the Big Wind, but this information would seem to suggest that not many people within government are for it.

These articles would not only suggest fragmentation among the elite on their positions on energy policy, but also ambivalence and even confusion. It would seem that they are making it up as they go along (just like the rest of us…). There is no big conspiracy.

Perhaps eventually we are just going to have to burn more coal. The HCEI might prove a catalyst to change, but not the one that any of us once expected.