Did you catch the article by Andrew Gomes in this morning’s Star-Advertiser (“Heavy hitters join board to gird for HEI bid“)?
Gomes reports several people who have signed on as directors, officers, and investors of Kuokoa Inc., a venture with a stated goal of taking over Hawaiian Electric.
Prominent among them is Rick Blangiardi, general manager of Hawaii News Now, the controversial news operation created through a back-door merger of several Honolulu television stations. According to the story, Blangiardi is now a director and vice-chairman of the board for Kuokoa, while still steering Hawaii News Now.
I have to wonder how Blangiardi can accept a position in which he will have a fiduciary duty to a company seeking to take over the state’s major energy utility, a position certain to create, at the very minimum, the appearance of conflict with the reporting broadcast on several stations that are part of Hawaii News Now. If you’re a reporter, do you worry that your boss is now a principal in the controversial company? Does it impact your reporting? If you’re an editor, will your General Manager’s role constrain your decisions? And, even if it doesn’t, how do you convince a skeptical public of that fact?
This seems like incredibly bad judgement, in my view.
And while I’m thinking of HECO, yesterday’s entry about the PUC and Big Wind reminded me that this isn’t the first Hawaiian Electric renewable energy deal to fall apart.
Remember BlueEarth Biofuels and its plan to use $59 million in state revenue bonds approved in 2007 to finance a large biodiesel plant on Maui under contract with HECO?
Life of the Land has collected many clippings about the proposed BlueEarth propject.
After winning legislative approval, BlueEarth claims it was negotiating with potential development partners and contractors to implement the project when Hawaiian Electric began secret talks with one of those companies and later push BlueEarth out of the deal. BlueEarth challenged HECO in a federal court lawsuit alleging HECO and others misused confidential company information when they cut a deal to bypass the BlueEarth project. The lawsuit is still unresolved.
The back room shenanigans described by BlueEarth sound a lot like HECO’s shuffling of partners in the Big Wind project, doesn’t it?
And I notice that among the Kuokoa board members highlighted in Gomes’ article today is Noelani Kalipi, identified as former director of external affairs for wind energy developer First Wind, which was the developer initially identified for the Molokai portion of the Big Wind project which subsequently lost its position in the deal.
What does all this mean? I’m still trying to digest it all.
Maybe Life of the Land’s Henry Curtis will chime in and share his interpretation of it all.
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Blangiardi’s move is ridiculous. Imagine if KITV’s general manager also served as Neil Abercrombie’s Director of Communications. That said, I have major doubts this business will live up to its dreams of taking over Hawaiian Electric, which is worth AT LEAST $2.3 Billion.
I’m sure Hawaii News Now will be all over this story right away.
Fortunately, the Star-Advertiser did the story today, despite its coverage ties to Hawaii News Now. It’s good to be able to say something positive about the media these days. Ironic that this happens amid News Corp’s killer cronyism! No doubt Blangiardi has already come up all kinds of explanations that what he is doing is just fine and dandy. He will swear up and down that this would have no effect on his news coverage. What game will he think of next?
Tim, please. Star-Advertiser is the media monopoly in Hawaii, a hydra suffocating any fair news coverage in Hawaii. Your allusion to News Corp betrays left wing derangement with everything FOX at the same time as you approvingly nod toward a total news delivery domination by the single entity 100% controlled by your cronies in the local Democrat establishment. Shame on you.
Woah, down boy. I’m no fan of the local news monopoly but “100 % controlled by your cronies in the local Democrat establishment” is just a bit over the top. Too much FOX derangement, methinks.
LOL ….. shame on me! I promise I will love and cherish your powerful rubbish of a comment. You actually concluded I *like* newspaper monopolies when I said: “It’s good to be able to say something positive about the media these days.” Should I have said: “”It’s *BAD* to be able to say something positive about the media these days.”
And then you attempt to work FOX into this! Fluffy, please do everyone a huge favor and keep making such weak conclusions and comments all over the Web. Make as many as you can. Your odd arguments can help keep your own sad political affiliations out of power. Keep it up!
You wrote: “this isn’t the first Hawaiian Electric renewable energy deal to fall apart.”
From the May 31, 2007 Star-Advertiser:
“Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) has announced formal negotiations with Kapolei-based Hoku Solar Inc. to install a photovoltaic power system at the utility’s Ward Avenue substation. The solar power system, which will generate 167 kwh of power, will be the second-largest installation of its type on Oahu and will be HECO’s first utility-sited, large-scale commercial photovoltaic project. HECO, which will have an option to purchase the system from Hoku after five years, said the 20 year fixed energy pricing for the project is a new approach for HECO to obtain renewable energy and is available since photovoltaic technology has no uncertain future fuel costs. Final approval is required by the state Public Utilities Commission.”
That was 2007. It’s now 2011…
This town loves Ricky B…..he can do what he wants and never gets questioned…..even the SA didn’t question him, they just reported the fact he was on the Board.
Part of what it means, says I, is the demise before our eyes of Big Wind. OTEC, solar and geothermal energy are getting more ink as Big Wind’s troubles mount. The neighbor island wind/cable project won’t happen, if not for technical reasons then for the residents’ opposition and huge financial outlay it would require to hook up to an intermittent source of electricity generation.
Ahhhh, the nutburgers are still amongst us.
Seriously, most people who comment here want us to get off fossil fuels, but some folks are not willing to accept solar panels or biofuels or geothermal or wind power or OTEC or wave power.
They just shout and yell at each other for being opposed to their own great ideas.
Let’s shift from oil to coal as proposed in Ian’s earlier post & comments.
Yes, let’s just pour more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.
What do the opponents of other kinds of renewables suggest – hiring the homeless to pedal our power needs on stationary bikes? Building massive cages full of hamsters generating electrcity and charging the batteries for our transportation needs?
I support wind and solar and biofuels made from sewage and solid waste and geothermal and wave power and OTEC.
Let’s stop fighting and defending our turf and get something done before the lights go out when the price of oil hits $250 a barrel.
BTW, Ian did not suggest coal. I did.
More specifically I suggested that it be used as a way to fund renewables like solar, that is, to accelerate the process of shifting to renewables.
I also suggested that the (temporary) turn toward something like coal is almost inevitable in Hawaii because 1) almost every other country in the world relies primarily on coal to generate electricity, 2) Hawaii won’t affect global warming anyway no matter what it burns, 3) the primary idea is energy stability and independence from oil, not renewables for the sake of renewables, and 4) we are getting way ahead of ourselves with vast sophisticated projects (and in a society where even the simplest of things is touched with ineptitude).
Basically, all these things aren’t going to happen, so let’s think about what we must do when it’s time to pick up the pieces.
I vote for the hamsters.