 Welcome to PowerUp Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable, and just energy future. I am your host, Raya Salter. I am an energy attorney, clean energy advocate, and community outreach specialist. I'm also the principal attorney of Imagine Power LLC. Today we're going to take a look at important energy and utility news from Hawaii around the country and the world, as reported in the last week. First, let's take a look at some recent developments in clean energy and clean energy policy in the islands. Now to mark Earth Day on April 22, the Hawaiian Electric Company published several stats touting the utility's clean energy programs. As reported by Green Tag Media, Hawaiian Electric Companies reached a new milestone in 2016, with 26% of the electricity used by customers coming from renewable sources, up from 23% the year before. On the island of Hawaii, renewable electricity use surpassed the halfway mark for the first time, reaching 54%, up from 49% in 2015. Maui reached a record high of 37% last year, and 19% of electricity used by customers came from renewable resources on Oahu. So when it comes to the types of renewable resources in the company's energy mix, their own solar dominates, with 34% of renewable energy generated last year, followed by wind at 29%, and biomass in third at 19%. Earlier this month, regulators reopened the grid supply program by removing projects from the queue that had been approved but never completed. So estimates show around 20 megawatts of grid supply capacity is now available for customers of the three companies, representing about 2,800 private rooftop solar systems. The Hawaiian Electric Companies report hundreds of applications are already in line for processing, and will be processed in the order in which they were received and only as capacity becomes available through October 21, 2017. Now from 2008 to 2016, all three companies collectively cut their oil use in generators from 10.7 million barrels to 8.5 million barrels, a 21% decrease. On Oahu, where energy demands are at their highest, Hawaiian Electric's oil use fell from 7.8 million barrels to 6 million barrels. In Hawaiian Electric Companies territory, the number of registered plug-in electric vehicles has broken the 5,000 mark. That milestone ranks Hawaii's second in the nation for EV adoption for capital after California. So we've got Earth Day, and we've got HECO really reporting on what is quite remarkable renewable energy penetration. I think so many folks in the sector are looking to push HECO. I think HECO takes a lot of heat. Folks want to see them reform, and they want to see them reform faster. But I for one think that it's great that the HECO companies took this opportunity to really show how much it is they're doing on clean and renewable energy, and as a state that has a tremendously high rate of rooftop solar. They are doing, I think what many may say, is a tremendous job. So congratulations, HECO, for celebrating your accomplishments on Earth Day. Before HECO news, HECO and New Jersey's NRG have signed a 22-year PPA for what will be the largest solar facility in the state. Now this was reported by PVTech. A 49 megawatt solar array will be located on the North Shore of Oahu on Kamehameha Schools' own land near Haleiwa. It will be built and owned by NRG and targeted to come online in 2019. HECO will purchase the electricity generated by the facility at 10.99 cents a kilowatt hour with use of the state's tax credit. So this agreement awaits approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. In addition to this solar facility, HECO filed PPAs for a 14.7 megawatt project and another 45.9 megawatt project also to be built and owned by NRG and scheduled to come online in 2019. So all three solar projects were originally proposed for sun Edison and acquired by NRG in November 2016 during the former company's bankruptcy proceedings. The current PPA prices were negotiated below the previous sun Edison prices, which were around 13.5 cents for a kilowatt hour. So cumulatively, all three projects total a near 110 megawatts of solar generation. Of course we know the utility aims to hit 100% renewable energy generation by 2040, five years earlier than the initial target of 2045. This also marks NRG's entry into the whole Hawaii utility-scale solar market. So this is really interesting. We've talked for a long time about these projects, these zombie projects, these projects that were left to a scant by the bankruptcy sort of coming to life. Now here they come to life with a New Jersey company, NRG. When I was an M&A attorney, I'm in private practice, NRG was a client, a very prominent mainland energy company. I think it's also worth noting the lower price on the PPA from the old deal. I wasn't in the room when those negotiations were made, but I wonder if simply the time even passing and the continued costs that continue to lower on solar technology had anything to do with bumping down that price. I think it sort of represents some of the benefits and negatives that can come from getting into long-term PPAs at this time. I think you might want to think about ways to call an innovation clause a way to prepare for what happens when a cost may reduce, might there be a windfall I think in this current climate, that wouldn't be a crazy thing to think about. So moving along more news about Hawaii, Hawaii ranks among the top in the United States for clean energy adoption. As reported by PBN, Hawaii is five among the 50 states in the US for shifting to renewable energy according to a new report. Now this analysis comes to us from the Union of Concerned Scientists and it was released Thursday. They used 12 metrics to rank states crediting each state with up to 10 points for each metric including deployment of renewable energy, energy efficiency in electric vehicles, as well as policies for renewable energy adoption. So Hawaii ranks first in residential solar per capita as we discussed before and fourth in EV adoption. The Hawaii also ranks in the top 10 of the 12 metrics in the clean energy momentum report. The report said that California is doing the best job transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean energy sources, followed by Vermont and Massachusetts. I like to talk about how Hawaii continues to provide national leadership on clean energy. I think when we have the discussions here and we face the challenges of energy, energy at the food, water, agriculture, nexus, and also energy as it relates to transportation, you know there's a lot of frustration, folks want to see things move forward faster, I think that it's useful and important to note that Hawaii continues to get recognition nationally for being a forward-looking state. Let's go ahead and talk about something that I think is extremely exciting. Of course we had the people's climate march and of course we had sister marches in Hawaii for the big march that happened in DC. So hundreds of folks answered the call to march in Waikiki for more action on climate change. This happened on Saturday. A lot of people came to protest President Donald Trump's efforts to defund or dismantle efforts to address climate change. Now the organized rally coincided with his 100th day in office. Demonstrators held signs, warning of dying oceans and climate catastrophe. Some were even in snorkeling gear. Organizers say the president has left environmental protections and tatters. On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency removed most of the information on climate change from its website to reflect the approach of new leadership. So we had hundreds of sister marches and we also had marches take place in Hilo and Kona on the Big Island and perhaps in other places as well. In Denver, protesters braved the snow while tens and hundreds of thousands invaded the streets of Washington DC that had record high temperatures of over 90 degrees. So while global movements like these help create awareness, organizers say it's what we do on a day to day basis that truly plays a role in combating climate change. I'm always excited to talk about the people's climate march. I of course participated in the last people's climate march that happened and at least the New York City one. It's exciting. It's wonderful when people come together to talk about direct action. It's also another time when groups, sort of disparate groups that work in the environmental movement sometimes come together. You get the sort of mainstream green organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council and then you get some of the indigenous organizations, environmental justice organizations. Really the frontline communities all come together to talk about working towards a cleaner world and against climate change. So moving on, we're going to start talking about an interesting story, an explosive story that's happened here. The Hawaii Senate refused to confirm Gorac to the PUC. So the Hawaii Senate rejected Governor Ege's nomination of Tom Gorac to the three member public utilities commission on Friday night on a 15 to 10 vote. The rejection was seen by opponents as retaliation against the governor for opposing Florida based next era energies, $4.3 billion bid to buy Hawaiian electric industries. So we're going to take a break and we'll come back and we'll talk more about the Gorac nomination. Aloha, I'm Kaui Lukas, host of Hawaii is my mainland every Friday at 3PM on Think Tech Hawaii. We talk about things of interest to those of us who live here. And my past blogs can be found at kauilukas.com, okay. I didn't listen. Flaming all week for the day of the big game. Watching at home just doesn't feel the same. What on the list is who's gonna drive? It's nice to know you're gonna get home alive. Plan for fun and responsibility. Choose the DD. Captain of our team, it's the DD. For every game day, assign a designated driver. Welcome back to Power Up Hawaii. I'm your host, Raius Holter. We talk about Hawaii coming together to walk towards a clean, renewable, and just energy future. Before the break, we were talking about Tom Gorac's nomination being turned away on the Senate floor. Tom Gorac was Governor E. Gay's nominee to be on the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. And so we'll go ahead and continue to talk about that. So none of Gorac's opponents spoke on the Senate floor before the vote. But several of his supporters did. This included Senator Gill Rivers from the North Shore, who cited Gorac's decades of experience and said he's exactly the person we need in the state of Hawaii to move us forward with our renewable energy portfolio. The Environmental Advocacy Group, Sierra Club and Earth Justice, tried to drum up last minute support for Gorac Friday, circulating a letter that emphasized disqualifications. Now the vast majority of testimony at Gorac's confirmation hearing earlier this month was positive, with just three people opposing his confirmation. Friday's Senate session was supposed to start at 6.30 PM, but was delayed by 40 minutes as senators discussed Gorac's nomination and other matters in the majority caucus room and met with Deputy Attorney General. Because all the senators are Democrats, they all could participate in that discussion behind closed doors. Soon after the session started, the Senate called a recess for about 15 minutes, during which senators talked quietly to one another on the Senate floor and discussed pushing the vote back until next week. Now Gorac served as legal counsel for the PUC for three years prior to his appointment by EGAY in June. The appointment was controversial, but because it came just weeks before the commission was expected to vote on the next era deal, former PUC chair Hermina Merida challenged the appointment in court. Senate President Ronald Kucci filed an amicus brief in support. The case is ongoing. Gorac ended up accusing himself from the next era vote in July, and the two remaining commissioners rejected the sale. He has continued to serve on the PUC as an interim commissioner since then. Now Kucci backed a decision by a Senate committee led by Senator Roslyn Baker to recommend against accepting Gorac's nomination earlier this month by a vote of four free. In the committee report explaining why she rejected Gorac, Baker wrote that she agreed with the supporters that he is well qualified, but she wrote, she had heard private information that she could not disclose discrediting Gorac's character. She also brought up how Gorac was appointed. Opponents again see the rejection as payback against Governor David E. Gay for opposing next era energy's $4.3 billion attempt to buy Hawaii's utility. I don't actually have a lot to add to that story. Certainly explosive, certainly a publicly, a very public denial of Tom Gorac. Again, some call it payback against Governor E. Gay for the method and the effect of the way that E. Gay placed him and what that meant to the next era deal and what that meant, I guess, to the chamber's sense of authority. So I think as Governor E. Gay said, life goes on and they are looking again for another commissioner to fill that seat. So we will closely follow what happens there. Let's talk a little more again about the people of climate march. So many folks descended on the White House, President Trump's 100 day in office. So really it was thousands of climate activists in DC trying to send a message to the president that climate change is real. It is ironic, or perhaps not, that Democrats, demonstrators, brave temperatures above the 90s mark in DC Saturday to march down Pennsylvania Avenue, charting, chanting, water is life, and keep it in the soil, can't drink oil. The gathering, already a familiar sight during Trump's nascent presidency, came together under the banner of the people's climate march. Participants surrounded the White House complex and staged a choreograph sit-in, beating their chests 100 times to symbolize both the president's time in office and the heartbeat of the environmental movement. Trump was in residence at the time. So the Sierra Club helped organize the event, which drew celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, former Vice President Al Gore, and climate and clean water activists like Mari Copenny, best known as Little Miss Flint. So just talking a little more about the climate march, I think we've got a galvanized environmental movement, one that I'm proud to be a part of. I wasn't able to march in the sister march here, but I look forward to continued advocacy and activism for climate, fighting against climate change, for energy justice, and climate mitigation, and clean and renewable energy for all. Cold climate marchers, I was with you all in spirit. Now we'll move on to some other national news. So cool stuff, Atlanta becomes the latest city to commit to 100% renewable energy by 2035. Atlanta lawmakers approved a measure on Monday aimed at powering the city entirely on renewable energy sources, including solar and wind by 2035. A resolution introduced by city council member and unanimously approved, commit city government to develop a plan for transitioning all of its buildings to clean electricity sources by 2025, and for the entire city to go green a decade later. So folks there say we know that moving to clean energy will create good jobs, clean up our air and water, and lower our residents utility bills. So Hall, who's also a Democratic candidate for mayor, who's the city council person who brought this up, said in a statement, we never thought we'd be away from landline phones or desktop computers, but today, we carry our smartphones around and they're more powerful than anything we used to have. We have to set an ambitious goal or we're never gonna get there. So that's just really cool. Atlanta becomes the 27th US city and the first in Georgia to pledge a 100% renewable energy goal according to the Sierra Club. So we've talked several times before about aspirational goals, why I do still think that they're important and I think if we think about aspirational goals beginning to be meaningless, I think that it's in a good way because we're getting more and more folks who are committing to this and more and more folks, including folks here in Hawaii, are seeing that they can get to these goals even faster than we thought. So I think it's great. I also think that this is something that Hawaii might wanna think about in particular as it relates to transportation. We wanna see more clean and renewable transportation happen in the state and I think one clear way is for the state itself and for the cities and municipalities to take the lead on clean energy adoption be it through public transit, be it through government buildings. I know that Governor E. Gay recently did sign an energy efficiency bill for buildings that will also apply to government buildings. So great effort, congratulations Atlanta. And we look forward to seeing what you guys do. Let's make it a race, a race to the top for clean and renewable energy. So another important news, it looks like the EPA and clean energy were spared Trump's ax in the $1.1 trillion budget deal that the chambers came together with very recently. So environmental programs marked for death or deep cuts by President Donald Trump got a reprieve and the government funding deal revealed early Monday by congressional leaders at least for now. The EPA targeted for a massive cut almost a third of its funding instead escaped with the budget trimmed by only 1% and no staff reductions. I'm sorry, you know what? We're about to near the end of the program but it just goes to show I laugh because I'm one of I think many people who after the election talking about abolishing the EPA pulling out of the Paris Agreement it really felt like the environmental apocalypse and the thought of unified action to destroy the EPA, do things like repeal the Clean Water Act or the Clean Air Act or some of the language that was being bent it around was so profoundly disturbing. And I think it's just I laugh because it turns out that the proof is in the pudding. We will see, of course it's too soon to tell we have to take all of the threats to our clean energy agencies very seriously. But this one seems to not have materialized so I think it also speaks to people power. You keep your legislators accountable and they may very well respond. Nobody likes starving their districts of funds which is what a lot of the Trump budget called for. So thank you once again. Thank you for joining me for another edition of Power Up Hawaii. Thank you so much and aloha.