HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

241

TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

URGING THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION TO END CONSIDERATION OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRIAL WIND FACILITIES ON THE ISLAND OF LANAI.

 

 


     WHEREAS, Act 165, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012 (Act 165), authorized the construction and development of an interisland high-voltage undersea electric transmission cable system to link the electricity consumers of the island of Oahu to the wind energy generation facilities located on other islands of the State; and

 

     WHEREAS, notwithstanding Act 165, the initial placement of hundreds of industrial wind turbines was targeted for placement in the historic Kaa ahupuaa, on the island of Lānai; and

 

     WHEREAS, residents and community groups on Lānai and around the State have strongly and consistently opposed the construction of industrial wind energy facilities on Lānai; and

 

     WHEREAS, in May 2012, ninety-eight percent of Lānai was purchased by Lanai Island Holdings, LLC; and

 

     WHEREAS, Pūlama Lānai and its parent company Lanai Island Holdings, LLC, have expressed no desire or plan to place industrial wind turbines in the Kaa ahupuaa; and

 

     WHEREAS, H.C.R. No. 189, H.D. 1, Regular Session of 2013, requested the Governor to engage and work with Lānai, Molokai, and the other neighbor island communities when formulating energy policy and identifying energy projects for the State of Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, in May 2013, the Hawaiian Electric Company publicly stated it no longer needed industrial wind energy from Lānai to meet the renewable portfolio standards set forth in section 269-92, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State Energy Office of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism thereafter publicly also stated that energy from industrial wind turbines on Lānai is not needed for the State to meet its energy goals; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Governor also publicly stated that an industrial wind energy facility on Lānai would interfere with the vision of Lanai Island Holdings, LLC, to make the island of Lānai a world-class model of energy self-sufficiency; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2014, the Senate concurring, that the Public Utilities Commission is urged to terminate consideration of the construction of industrial-scale wind energy generation facilities on the island of Lānai; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Public Utilities Commission; Mayor of Maui County; Lanai Island Holdings, LLC; Castle & Cooke Hawaii, Inc.; and the Executive Directors of Friends of Lānai, Lanaians for Sensible Growth, Lānai Community Association, Lānai Cultural and Heritage Center, and Kupaa nō Lānai.

Report Title: 

Public Utilities Commission; Industrial Wind Energy Generation Facilities; Island of Lanai