Innovations Development Group CEO Pat Brandt asked that I share this letter with readers.
I’m glad to do it. Brandt has a long track record of community involvement and service, and I have always had great respect for her and her work. Although I have questions about her company, that is really a separate issue.
In any case, here’s her letter. Just click on the letter to see a larger version.
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The 20-year battle to develop geothermal power has produced a lot of collateral damage. Perhaps the worst damage has been the destruction of any credibility for invoking Hawaiian spirituality either to support or to oppose geothermal. On the previous go-round quite a few years ago, some of the same principals now leading IDG protested that it was a sacrilege to poke holes in Madam Pele. But in the current go-round they are now saying we should be grateful to Madam Pele for leaving us her gift of geothermal power. The only difference between then and now is that in the present go-round, IDG is owned by ethnic Hawaiians, who now invoke spirituality to support the same project they bitterly opposed on grounds of spirituality back when the developers were non-Hawaiian. It’s all about money and political control. The real sacrilege is the invoking of spirituality by either side on either occasion, causing a loss of credibility in the sincerity of anyone invoking such sentiments in the future.