 Welcome to Power Up Hawai'i, where Hawai'i comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable and just energy future. I am your host, Raya Salter. I'm 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 Hawai'i 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 policy in the islands. As reported by Jeff Hansel at Hawaii Tribune News today, incentives may help avoid sticker shock for electric cars on the Big Island. Helco has partnered with Nissan to offer a $10,000 rebate on a new 2016 or 2017 all-electric Nissan Leaf sedan. Helco says it's part of the drive electric Hawai'i effort to speed adoption of clean, cost-effective electric vehicles and move the state closer to 100% renewable energy. Combined with the $7,500 federal tax incentive, the consumer's end cost for the $30,680 sticker price on a Nissan Leaf is now $13,180. The rebate is available until March 31st, or while supplies last. Now, the sedan has a 107-mile range when fully charged. It's about 80 miles from Helo to Kailua Kona, South Point, or Hawai'i. The car can be plugged into any 120-volt outlet, but that typically requires sitting overnight to fully recharge. That means you wouldn't be able to drive from Helo to Kailua Kona late some afternoon, plug into a 120-volt outlet somewhere, and get recharged in time to go home the same day. Now, there are quite a few charging stations already on the Big Island, including at the car dealership in Helo, the Helo International Airport, the county buildings in Helo, on the University of Hawai'i at Helo campus, and at the community center in Pahoa and at Helco in Wamea. So this is extremely interesting. I would be interested in getting a 2017 all-electric Nissan Leaf for about $13,000. But it shows the challenges of the lack of EV infrastructure, especially on the Big Island. I don't know if I would be willing to embrace an all-electric vehicle if I had to do so much to plan a trip. So it is a great deal and one that I hope people take advantage of, and I think folks who are early adopters of electric vehicles in Hawai'i are willing to take on that planning burden. It may be an ideal situation for someone who wants a new electric car, may have short commutes, but it just highlights the need for an increase in electric vehicle infrastructure so that we can take advantage of fantastic incentives being offered to drive electric in Hawai'i and ultimately save a ton of money on gas and work towards lowering emissions. And I think even more importantly, this highlights something that's an extremely important issue in Hawai'i. So as you've heard me say before, Hawai'i's greenhouse gas contributions are significant for Hawai'i, but in terms of Hawai'i's contribution towards catastrophic climate change, it is minimal to insignificant. So it's important to focus on what are some of the other benefits to being green in Hawai'i. One of them is that old cars and idling. So so many of us think about all the time that you go, say, to pick up your child at school and look, I get it, I do the same thing. We got to keep on the car, keep that air conditioner going. We want to be cool in the car as we wait. We want our children and whoever is coming into our car to come into an uncomfortable environment. However, as we sit and wait for 10, 15, 20 minutes, half an hour with all those cars parked and idling, it is a health hazard. It is a toxic air hazard for the children and anyone in that area. So that on its own is one of the reasons why we need to be thinking about cleaning up our cars. So there are a lot of reasons to go green and let's hope that we start being real leaders on electric vehicle infrastructure. So moving on to some news about the utility in its business. As reported by Dan Jones of B&B Daily yesterday, Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. was downgraded by Zax Investment Research. Now the research company lowered shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning. According to Zax, Hawaiian Electric has outperformed the Zax categorized utility electric industry based on the strong financials it bears that allows it to make systemic investments in utility infrastructure development projects. Hawaiian Electric continues to focus on expanding its renewable assets to drive growth over the long haul. The company is progressing smoothly to comply with the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, which calls for generating 100% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2045. Moreover, it maintains a stable liquidity position. However, its operations remain heavily dependent on weather conditions, while commodity price fluctuations and any delay in the supply of fuels may affect its ability to generate power. Moreover, increasingly stringent government relations for curbing emissions is a major cause of concern. So that is in the words of this particular report, and I want to emphasize this is just one report. But I think it's interesting to highlight that the very reasons that this report is saying that it has downgraded the utility from buy to hold are things that moving forward towards clean and renewable energy has the potential to address. First, of course, moving towards clean and renewable energy and away from fossil fuels is addressing that issue of fluctuating commodities by that they mean imported fuel oil. So if we can move away from that, that risk can be mitigated. In addition, the need to respond to extreme weather events can also be mitigated if investments are made in the grid to make it more resilient. And part of that resiliency is decentralization of power. So that's distributed generation, distributed clean, clean distributed generation that can say, for instance, island on an island. Island is certain part of the grid in the case of a blackout and then so that not the entire system is affected. And then allow that particular part of the grid to black start or start itself and also start other parts of the grid. So that's just one way that a decentralized system can help build resiliency. So I think it's interesting and helpful to think that if the utility can continue to move towards clean energy, it can send positive messages directly at its bottom line and its investors. I think you also see in that report discussion of the regulatory atmosphere here. It talks about 100% clean and renewable energy goal. In its opinion, the utility is moving smoothly towards that goal. Yet there is concern, I think, on what regulation may do. Now that's what the report says concern regarding emissions reduction, stringent emissions reduction regulation. I'm not sure exactly what they mean there. But I think that it just shows that reports can be anxious about what regulators are doing, what utilities are doing. So interesting, helpful, and speaking directly to the investors of our utility. Moving on, the Maui Energy Conference keynote speakers are announced as reported by Lahaina News on February 9th. This year's Maui Energy Conference to be held at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center on March 22nd to 23rd has broadened its focus. Hosted by the Mayor's Office of Economic Development and Maui Economic Development Board, the conference theme covers topics from electricity and gas to transportation, water delivery systems. The keynote speaker will be Guillermo Penalosa. He is the founder and chair of the Board of 8 to 80 Cities, an internationally recognized nonprofit organization based in Canada. 880 Cities was founded on the philosophy that if you create a great city for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old, you will establish a successful city for all people. Penalosa is also the chair of World Urban Parks, as well as a senior advisor to Children in Nature, Vision Zero Network, and America Walks. His leadership and advice has been sought out in more than 250 different cities across six continents. Another draw for this year's conference will be Carol Sim, an Environmental Affairs Director at Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines has been a leader in the airline industry in utilizing alternative jet fuel. It made history in November, flying the world's first commercial flight using a new sustainable alternative jet fuel made from forest residuals. Sim will join the panel on innovations and transportation, which takes a look at what steps can be taken to create and facilitate a resilient transportation sector. Great news about the Maui Energy Conference, always a great gathering of folks from around the islands and the country and the world. I think it's super exciting that the keynote speaker is going to be really a city's advocate, a sustainability advocate because, in my opinion, we need to break down the silos that exist between the energy worlds and the agriculture worlds and the food worlds and the sustainability worlds because there's a tremendous nexus of food and water and ag, and we're going to need to look at all of it to think about clean energy and sustainability in Hawaii. So that's super exciting. I would look forward to seeing Guillermo speak. And also, that's just super exciting to hear that we're going to get to hear from Alaska Airlines about how they have been working towards alternative jet fuel. As you know, the need for fossil fuel based jet fuel coming in and off the islands is a huge issue. It's a big issue that also affects, you know, that is also dependent on the volatility of those same commodities markets that we talked about before. So really exciting to hear how they have been addressing these issues. Oh, one more thing about who's going to be at the conference, Boris Von Boorman of Mercedes-Benz will share their work with the world's largest second use battery storage. In efforts to stabilize the grid, Daimler AG, the mobility house AG and GETEC have joined forces to develop a 13 megawatt battery storage project in Germany using a total of 1,000 battery systems from second generation smart for two electric drive cars. So that's just one more piece about who will be speaking at the utility conference. So for more news on what's going on in Hawaii, as reported by Peter Maloney of UtilityDive on February 14th today, the Navy is developing a 44 megawatt solar storage facility on Kauai. The facility is being built on a 200 acre site at the Pacific Missile Range facility at Barking Sands and will be built in two phases. The first of 21 megawatts and the second of 23 megawatts. Details on the battery system were not released. The system would use solar power to charge the batteries during the day and discharge them at night to provide power to the local community. It would reduce the need for the Navy to operate its diesel generators and, in the event of a utility power outage, provide power to the Navy facility. The Navy says the solar plus storage project at its Barking Sands missile facility, which is scheduled to begin construction no sooner than December 2017, would make it a net zero installation. So interesting news, more clean power for Kauai as you noticed. There's talk about resiliency or what happens in the event of a power outage. That's something that I think the military is increasingly concerned about here on the islands, but also throughout the country and indeed the globe as the security of energy and moving away from reliance on diesel and fossil fuel is extremely important to military operations everywhere. We've all heard the stories out of Iraq that it's the vulnerability of the supply chains that have led to the so many attacks and deaths of our service people in Iraq. So it is of huge concern for the military to move towards decentralized clean energy. So it looks like there's some leadership happening on Kauai. Let's see what happens there. So as reported by Hawaii News now on February 7th, Hawaiian Electric is marking its 125 years of serving Hawaii. HIKO was registered to do business by the Kingdom of Hawaii and was subsequently incorporated on October 13th in 1891. Throughout its history, Hawaiian Electric has played an integral role in the state's growth and development. On December 7th, 1941, as Japanese warplanes caused outages at Pearl Harbor with machine gun fire, 13 workers stated their posts to safely shut down the plant. The plant is under attack, secured everything, the plant's logbook recorded. In 1949, the first high-voltage transmission line was built across the Koalao Mountain Range to serve the growing windward side of Hauahu. So we will take a break and when we come back, we'll have more news from Hawaii, the country, and around the globe about clean renewable energy. Aloha, Howard Wigg. I am the proud host of Code Green, Sink Tech, Hawaii. I appear every other Monday at three in the afternoon. Do not tune in in the morning. My topic is energy efficiency. It sounds dry as heck, but it's not. We're paying five billion dollars a year for imported oil. My job is to shave that, shave that, shave that down in homes and buildings while delivering better comfort, better light, better air conditioning. Better everything. So if you're interested in your future, you'd better tune in to me. Three o'clock every other Monday, Code Green. Aloha and thank you very much. Hello and welcome back to Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean renewable and just energy future. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone out there. And today we've been talking about clean energy news in Hawaii and across the nation and the globe as reported in the last week. And before the break, we were talking about how HIKO is celebrating its 125th anniversary of providing service on the island. We talked about some interesting history and we'll go ahead and continue. So to commemorate the anniversary over the next year, Hawaiian Electric will give back to the community with 125 acts of aloha. These charitable donations and service projects will benefit agencies and programs committed to building a more sustainable future for Hawaii. Throughout the next 12 months, Hawaiian Electric will support nonprofit and community organizations with more than 125 charitable contributions and service projects. These efforts will focus on three key areas, education, especially in STEM, science, mathematics, engineering and technology, family and community support, and environmental stewardship. So interesting, fun, 125 years of Hawaiian Electric, you know, that I think rivals just about any of the oldest utilities in the nation. And I think it's an interesting way to go ahead and celebrate and commemorate to move forward with some acts of aloha, 125 acts that will support the community. Important news, if you have a nonprofit or community organization, it looks like you can and should be looking out for announcements of how you can potentially get some support for the utility. So I guess, thank you HIKO and we'll see how things move forward. Now let's go ahead and move away from the islands and talk about some of the things that are happening in utility news around the country. So as reported by Robert Walton of Utility Dive today, there's a lot of political noise happening in Maine over net metering policy. Maine Governor Paul LePage last week held a news conference to lambast utility regulators, saying he would like to see all three of the Public Utility Commission receipts replaced over their decision to reduce net metering benefits. Last month, the PUC made changes to the state's net metering policies, grandfathering an existing customers rate for 15 years, but gradually reducing new customer incentive rates each year. The decision was an attempt to find middle ground between net metering opponents and solar supporters. But LePage, an ardent critic of residential solar, believes net metering customers are subsidized by others not on the utility grid and has called for deeper cuts or the elimination of the program altogether. Very interesting. Why is this so important? Because I think we are seeing net metering and the support for net metering policy, it's literally just echoing in states and jurisdictions throughout the country including Hawaii. And I think there's no one methodology, there's no one report, there's no one policy that can be pointed to. It's really happening on an incremental basis, it's extremely political, and we shall see. In my opinion, we reported last week that some reports from LBNL have stated that sometimes retail net metering, especially with high concentrations, can shift costs from the folks who are using the net metering program to other folks who are not. So there is that potential for that to happen, yet that assumed volumetric rates and a lot of other sort of current and as many think outdated policies existing for the rest of the system. So can Hawaii find a sweet spot? Can Hawaii find a sweet spot that provides clean energy access for everybody with regard to income? And also is just in that it does not distribute costs in a way that is financially unfair. So this is happening all across the country, we can learn from other jurisdictions, they can learn from us, from us, and it's something that here on Power Up Hawaii we're just going to continue to keep our eye on. Moving ahead, as reported by Eric Schatzger and Rebecca Spalding of Bloomberg News on February 8th, Puerto Rico is seeking to renegotiate its utility debt deal. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello's administration has indicated that it wants to renegotiate a deal struck more than a year ago to restructure about 9 billion of electricity utility debt. An effort that could result in a showdown with insurers that guaranteed some of the bonds against default, people familiar with the matter said. Ross Childenco, which Rossello hired to oversee negotiations after he took office last month, has explored the possibility of persuading MBIA Inc., Assured Guarantee Limited, and Sincora Guarantee Inc. to contribute more to the restructuring according to people who spoke on the condition that they not be identified because the negotiations are ongoing. Unlike bondholders, under the agreement reached in December 2015 with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority known as PREPA, the companies didn't take losses on the approximately 2.2 billion they insured. The deal was seen as a template for other restructurings. Rossello's interest in renegotiating it may signal he wants to take a tougher stance with creditors after a series of record-setting defaults on Puerto Rico's $70 billion debt. Since the initial agreement, the federal government has given the island legal ability to cut its debts in court, strengthening Rossello's bargaining power. It's still not clear how big a concession his administration wants from the bond insurers, nor whether it will ask bondholders to accept deeper losses. No formal request to renegotiate has yet been made and no new terms have been offered to creditors, the people familiar with the matter said. Interesting and important folks who follow Energy and Utility News know that the utility in Puerto Rico has been struggling with debt, did reach an agreement to restructure it last year. It may have been seen by many that the cost of this restructuring is too high and the pain has not been spread amongst the various parties, in this case the insurers. Always an interesting and delicate dance when a government entity wants to reopen a restructuring deal with creditors and insurers. So I think it's an interesting and important story that we will continue to watch. Also, as reported by Robert Walton of Utility Dive Today, New Hampshire bills would withdraw the state from RGGI and repeal its renewables mandate. So let's look at what's going on here. Two proposed bills in New Hampshire would see the state exit a regional cap and trade system and end its renewable energy mandate. The Portland Press, Harold reports. HB592 would end New Hampshire's involvement in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, known as RGGI, a nine state emissions trading scheme. And HB225 would repeal the state's renewable portfolio standard, which will require 17% renewables to be used by the state's utilities this year. Both bills are being considered by the Science, Technology and Energy Committee in the House. Now, opponents of the Clean Energy Initiative say they are raising the price of electricity in the state and making the economy less competitive. But the nine state initiative has helped reduce emissions about 40% over the last 10 years. This is interesting. We are seeing the political repercussions of our election and just the politics in our country start to take shape again with regards to clean and renewable energy. New Hampshire withdrawing from RGGI, you know, and again, this is in my opinion, again, a former Natural Resources Defense Council attorney. I'm a clean energy advocate. NRDC was actually pivotal in, you know, as part of the effort to help create RGGI along, of course, with many, many, many other stakeholders. RGGI, I think, has in many ways been a success story in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We shall see. We've got, you know, we know that in this new Trump administration, whatever happens on the federal level, states are going to move forward on their energy initiatives in many cases. Illinois, Hawaii, California, New York, among them moving forward aggressively towards clean and renewable energy. And so here we've got some rumblings of something that would be very regressive. It's unclear how much support it has. It's unclear whether or not this will pass. But interesting, another interesting thing to keep our eyes on. Now in Massachusetts, as reported by Paul Tuthill of WAMC Public Radio, Massachusetts is mulling a new 100% renewable energy goal. Environmental activists launched a campaign Monday to win passage of a bill in Massachusetts that would commit the state to 100% renewable energy over the next few decades. Three Massachusetts legislators have filed a bill that would require that all electricity used in the state be generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind by 2035 and fossil fuels be eliminated as power sources for heat, transportation, and anything else by 2050. The bill, dubbed the 100% Renewable Energy Act, was filed by Democratic lawmakers during a conference call with reporters Monday. The state director for Environment in Massachusetts announced that there are now 53 co-sponsors of this bill. And in his words, it's a huge show of support for an ambitious clean energy commitment. He said the bill sends a clear message that despite changes in energy policy on the federal level, Massachusetts will remain committed to fighting climate change. If passed, it would be the most ambitious clean energy commitment made by any state so far. The bill establishes a long-term framework for ramping up the use of renewable energy in Massachusetts to 100% throughout the entire economy. But the implementation details would be left to state regulatory agencies. The officials said there's no cost estimate attached to the legislation. So here we go, Hawaii once again, Hawaii out ahead. We've got competition coming from Massachusetts. So with that, I want to miss everyone a happy Valentine's Day from those of us at Think Tech and also power up Hawaii. I'm your host, Raya Salter, Aloha, and Mahalo.