 Welcome to Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable, and just energy future. I'm 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. So today, we're going to take a look at some 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. So we're going to take a relatively deep dive into two topics, I think, that have been extremely important this week. One is what I think could be called a bombshell article in the Honolulu Star Advertiser by Catherine Mickelseth, that, while it's not been a secret, really put on the front page the fact that Hawaii's wealthy make up the majority of residents who have rooftop solar and the majority of tax credits and subsidies, i.e. subsidies, that have gone towards that industry have gone to the wealthy. This is, of course, nothing, not a secret, really, but I think it's bombshell that it's front page news. And the second thing we're going to spend some time talking about is the Trump administration's withdrawal of the Paris Climate Accord and what that means for what Hawaii officials feel about that, and what that means for cities and also for the nation. So let's go ahead and dig into it. Now Hawaii's wealthy make up the majority of residents who have rooftop solar, and at the same time, two programs the state has created to change that are foundering. So, Governor David Igay signed a law to create a community solar program in 2015. The program would help low-income rent—would help renters and low-income families benefit from solar, but the details of the program are still being debated, and it will take at least six months to implement once all the parties even agree to a plan. So another project that—or effort that came forward to spur clean energy was a loan program created by the state in 2013 to help make energy more affordable for low-income families. So, the Green Energy Market Securitization or GEMS program raised roughly $150 million through a bond sale, but has lent less than 2% of the funds to date, missing the original goal to have issued all the funds by the end of November 2016. Meanwhile, the only incentives that have been successful have gone primarily to the wealthy, according to state chief economist Eugene Tian. According to Tian, the higher the household income, the more PV installation Tian said. From 2011 to 2014, some 43% of residents who claim the state's renewable energy tax credit made more than $100,000 a year, an income bracket that accounts for just 14% of the population. So with nearly 78,500 photovoltaic systems connected to the grid, Hawaii has—it has the highest per capita solar penetration in the United States. Now, it got there with the help of the state tax credit, a generous payment to solar system owners for the excess energy their system sent to the grid, and Hawaiian Electric Company's high electric bills. So roughly 16% of HECO customers now have solar. Now, since 2009, Hawaii has offered a 35% tax credit for solar systems. That's in addition to a 30% federal tax credit. But to earn the tax credits, a homeowner must first pay for the system, a barrier too high for some low-income families. Let's face it, most low-income families. The average price for solar installations was $28,400 in May, according to state data. So the biggest barrier to solar ownership is home ownership. Hawaii home ownership is third lowest in the nation. About 57% of residents own their homes. Tian said the vast majority of single-family homes with PV are owned by the residents who occupy them. The most popular areas for installation are Mililani, Pearl City, Aiea, Diamondhead, Kahala, Aina Haina, Hawaii Kai, Kailua, and Lani Kai. So renters are essentially out of luck when it comes to benefiting from the solar incentives. Mark Duda, principal at Distributed Energy Partners, said a community solar program is necessary to break the barriers of entry. Historically, says Duda, you've needed, in one way or another, to own or control property in order to participate in rooftop solar or bill offsetting programs. Community solar breaks that linkage. But ECO has rejected the PUC community solar plan that would allow renters to pay a set amount per month in return for a share of the electricity produced by a solar farm. But the program? So the program is far from reality in Hawaii. After two years of discussions, state regulators and Hawaiian Electric Company have not agreed on the program's details, including how much renters would be credited for solar power. The Public Utilities Commission came up with a plan for community solar, but, as Catherine mentions in the article, ECO rejected it. On Tuesday, ECO said it would pursue legal action to avoid putting in place the program proposed by the PUC. The PUC said it could take up to six months for ECO to launch the program, even after all parties agree on its details. Similarly, the GEMS program has done little to help renters and low-income homeowners. Seven months since the GEMS program was supposed to fully deploy its $150 million fund to help families save on energy costs, the state has lent only $2.8 million while spending $2.9 million on administrative costs. Ratepayers are covering the costs of GEMS through the green infrastructure fee on their monthly bill. That money will be used to pay for interest payments on the bonds sold to fund GEMS. During the 15-year life of the bonds, interest will total $33 million. Gwen Yamamoto-Lau, the fourth executive director of GEMS since it was launched in 2014, said her team is working as fast as possible to meet the needs of the state's energy market, but added there were some unrealistic deployment expectations set when the idea of GEMS was being sold to the legislature back in 2012 and 2013. The original director of the program, Richard Lim, was appointed by Governor Neil Ambackromby and left the post when EGA appointed a new director in 2014. Lim set up GEMS when he was director of the State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Lim declined to comment for Catherine's article. So one bill currently waiting for EGA's signature would use $46 million of the GEMS money to finance energy efficiency measures for the Department of Education. Yamamoto-Lau said the program is also looking to provide solar hot water heaters on Molokai, adding that the program's board approved $9.6 million for that project. Another effort taken up by Yamamoto-Lau's team is to offer an on-bill financing option to Hawaiian electric company customers. This option would allow loans for solar systems to be paid back through customers' electric bills. Yamamoto-Lau said she is also working on a program that would motivate landlords to install PV. She said the program will provide the financing mechanism coupled with incentives for landlords to install solar systems on behalf of their tenants. So that was a lot. So let's talk about that and break it down. Now for anyone who's spent any time watching this show, you know, these are issues that we have talked about at some length. First I think I want to talk a little bit about why it is so important to make sure that there is equity, energy equity and energy with regards to clean energy systems. It is, I think one of the reasons that the net metering program was actually shuttered is that there was a concept that the more that the wealthy move off of the grid means that those who are left behind on the grid or lower income people are then responsible to pay a larger portion of the grid to keep the grid going and that the wealthy leave the grid and that leaves lower income people stranded on the grid. Now that's something that has been talked about for a long time and has been controversial. I think that over recent years, and we've talked about this a lot, the dialogue amongst environmental advocates and utilities has changed somewhat and industry has changed somewhat. It used to be that the utility would say hey and a clean energy providers, this net metering rate paying the full retail price of energy when people sell their electricity back to the grid, this is too high. It does not take into account costs that we have to take on to manage the grid and to manage the solar energy and it's almost like providing free services to that customer. Meanwhile, other customers may feel a detriment. Solar industry and some solar advocates were hit back at that idea pretty hard. Several, a few years ago, I think that the tenor of that dialogue has changed as the clean energy industry has matured. Costs of PV in particular have come down and I think there's an understanding that perhaps in some instances the retail rate of energy was a type of incentive to see this industry get on its legs and see can this industry really fly on its own. So that net metering concept has been changing all across the country and there have been similar battles in terms of between industry and customers and other stakeholders sort of saying what is the right price of energy and there's a lot of policy that has come along with that. However, recent studies have started coming out saying that in areas specifically mentioning Hawaii there is an LBNL study that we talked about on this program. When you get these high levels of penetration you really do start seeing a equity skew from the lower income to the higher income people when we're talking about rooftop PV. So that is one piece when we're talking about equity in terms of who gets to benefit from clean energy and what does that mean for everybody else. Now what we're talking about in this story in addition to that really goes to say okay let's take a look at the incentives let's take a look at those state incentives let's take a look at what that means when you couple it with the federal incentives who has really benefited from that and I think the tail of a tape will say will show that the wealthy have benefited from that and the industry has benefited from that. Now I'm not here to say that that is necessarily incorrect but I do think that it is time for us to take a more macro view in terms of the subsidies that are being made available and looking at what segments of society are these are these subsidies call the subsidy, toilet, tax credit what have you what sectors of society is it reaching because the of course the overarching concept is if we can't crack the nut of regular folks and low income folks of more people in general universal access of clean energy we're not going to get their period and we're going to be lurching towards a system of greater inequity that is also unable to wean itself off of fossil fuel so that is sort of one piece of this discussion in this debate. I also want to want to respond to the the discussion about the GEMS program we have talked about the beleaguered GEMS program it has been years and years there's a lot of money to go towards the GEMS program and folks have been very disappointed at the result but I personally believe that we need to support the concept of the GEMS program we need to support Gwen Yamamoto-Lao and her team and we need to make sure that they get some wins because the models across the country are out there these funds can be used to help low-income folks middle-class folks and folks who do not own their homes we'll talk a little bit more about this when we come back after the break aloha you're watching power up hawaii this guy looks familiar he calls himself the ultra fan but that doesn't explain all this what he planned this party plan the snacks he even planned to coordinate colored shirts but he didn't plan to have a good time now you wouldn't do this in your own house so don't do it in your team's house know your limits and plan ahead so that everyone can have a good time aloha my name is steven phillip cats i'm a licensed marriage and family therapist and i'm the host of shrink wrap hawaii where i talk to other shrinks did you ever want to get your head shrunk well this is the best place to come to pick one i've been doing this we must have 60 shows with a whole bunch of shrinks that you can look at i'm here on tuesdays at three o'clock every other tuesday i hope you are too aloha welcome back to power up hawaii we've been talking about equity in the energy system we've been talking about the big article that cap and michael seth wrote for the halloween star advertiser that really laid bare some of the efforts that have happened under egay and the gymbacromby administration to try and democratize clean energy access for soaks and how there've been some hiccups there i wanted to emphasize again i think we have to stop calling gems beleaguered we've got to support gems and we've got to support what it means for to invest in low income and low income renewables and also renewables for folks who don't own or control their homes i'll talk a little bit later if we get to it in the in the um in the program new york has just invested 1.5 billion dollars in a clean energy program that's designed to create 20 000 green energy jobs by 2020 so gems still has some money that the idea of a green bank the idea of investing in these types of projects and making help making them happen is important it's happening all across the country new york connecticut and this is something i think we need to rally behind gems we need to rally behind miss uh yememoto lao and see some wins happen for the state i also want to comment a bit about the community solar we've talked at length about community solar on this program we've talked to folks in california and how the environmental defense fund is working with utilities there and community solar projects we've talked about community solar projects in new york and we've talked about the efforts that are happening here things have slowed down we really we really do need to see some of these things move forward we need to get some wins if we need to consolidate and and and just pick some projects that figure out how to get this done and to start moving forward this is sort of a general anecdotal type comment but we do need to start seeing some community solar i fear as much as we are on the cutting edge of clean energy advancements here we are beginning i think our policy is beginning to get behind the eight all the little bit and i would love to see the ship sort of sail forward but we are i want to have hope i i want to be supportive of when i want to be supportive of all our lawmakers and policymakers because these are challenging these are challenging uh issues for the utility who again i think does deserve credit for doing a good job of managing the highest level of pv penetration in the country and it was not he go who asked for the you know the the subsidy or the um the tax credit actually i'll take that back who knows perhaps they were supportive of it but he go deserves some credit for for managing a one of the most challenging um situations in the united states so we'll go ahead and move on let's talk a little bit about what hawaii lawmakers and members of the state's congressional delegation are thinking about president trump's decision thursday to pull out the united states out of a global agreement aimed at slowing the pace of global warming so we know that president trump made a big announcement speaking from the white house rose garden on thursday announcing his intentions to abandon the paris climate accord saying it could hurt us workers and unfairly handicaps the american economy so there is a lengthy exit process outlined in the deal which means the us would remain in the agreement at least formally through 2020 however trump said as of today the united states will cease all implementation of the non-binding paris accord so after this announcement governor david igay said hawaii was already taking steps to implement the paris accord and would continue to do so hawaii will continue to fulfill its kuleana on reaching our energy water land and other sustainability goals to make island earth a home for all igay said in the statement the innovation economy is driven by technology clean energy and green jobs we will continue to lead on this transformation and work collaboratively with the people of the world to do so uh so a measure approved by this year's legislature calls for the state to adopt the greenhouse reduction targets in the paris agreement igay has not yet signed the bill but an expedited review is likely given trump's announcement on thursday so state senator j kalani english one of the bill's co-authors said adopting the international pact's goal is necessary because hawaii is extremely susceptible to climate change we're feeling the effects of it more so than most other states in the union because we're completely surrounded by water we are seeing sea level rise english said in the last few years we've had lightning storms thunderstorms out of season storms more intense storms these are all part of climate change scientists say earth is likely to reach more dangerous levels of warming sooner as a result of the president's decision because america's pollution contributes so much to rising temperatures the ap reports now hawaii already has a greenhouse gas reduction law the legislation approved in 20 2007 seeks a 16 reduction in carbon emission by the year 2020 from large facilities like power plants and refineries some of the largest energy users in the state like the city are looking to reduce their carbon footprint the city wants to reduce its energy consumption by 30 percent over the next 13 years in a statement thursday mayor kurt codwell said the president's decision to pull out of the climate deal is an abandonment of american leadership and a threat to island communities like our own here in hawaii he added my administration is dedicated to continuing on the paris path and i am confident that this voice of federal leadership will be filled by local governments cities and mayors across the nation on twitter us senator brian schatz who of course has been an outspoken critic of the president's climate policies said the decision left him angry not deterred we will win this fight but we must be smarter tougher and more relentless than the polluters and their friends in another tweet he wrote dear trump administration please stop doing insane things signed future generations u.s senator mazzi harono was similarly incensed calling the decision irresponsible and shortsighted in hawaii we understand why it's important to take care of our land ocean and air our way of life depends on it harono said in a statement today it's more important than other for the first states like hawaii to boldly take the lead on clean energy innovation and good stewardship of our aina so president trump's decision to leave the paris accord has been widely panned by world leaders and clean energy advocates and now state leaders are voicing their support for the agreement as well so this is really the story i really wanted to dig into a bit just so you could hear the words of our representatives it is we know that our representatives are pro clean energy and pro climate good climate policy but i think it's important to look at what are the words what are our leaders doing to stand up to this catastrophic catastrophic withdraw from the paris accord now we've all read a lot i don't need probably don't need to say that without without the paris accord and without the united states committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions it's hard to see how we can reach goals for greenhouse gas emissions reductions and avert catastrophic climate change so this is enormously consequential don't believe the line that this agreement hurts jobs and there's really you know i think that industry itself including exxon has come forward to say we want to stay in this deal so it is cynical the arguments to pull out but something i want to mention that i've talked about a lot on this show it is important for states island state like hawaii and also other island states to make big bull commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions but i think it's extremely important to note it is not because that the emissions that we produce are making a wit of difference in terms of averting catastrophic climate change because they're not we do not need to be reducing greenhouse gas emissions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions sake should we be focused on creating the green energy economy yes should we be reduced focused on reducing energy poverty yes should we be focused on reducing the reducing or shrinking the footprint of the energy system eliminating carbon for energy security and health reasons yes but hear me now and hear me later hawaii is a victim to international greenhouse gas emissions including our own mainland the seas are rising in decades not generations hawaii will be seeing the effects so it's important that hawaii adhere to paris for solidarity to show this is the right thing to do to use moral authority to move forward with paris because without action urgent action to avert greenhouse gas emissions hawaii is is and other islands and of course the rest of the world ultimately is facing catastrophic climate change so i wanted to dig into what our local officials were saying now the next story talks a bit about i think after the announcement was made there was a really a tremendous outcry from other states and cities who are vowing to uphold the Paris climate accord goal um even if the administration wants to pull out of it so a dozen states and port orico have formed the u.s. climate alliance and committed to reducing emissions 26 or 28 from 2005 levels while meeting or exceeding the targets of the obama administration's clean power plan led by washington new york and california the parties have committed to uphold their end of the un pyrus climate accord which president president trump of course um decided to abandon a wide range of business interests from tech companies to fossil fuel producers also indicated their support for the agreement before trump's announcement so several cities have also indicated they will increase their clean energy goals in support of climate efforts and mayors representing more than 50 million residents are also pledging efforts to combat climate change so cities towns they're gonna step forward states we're gonna do this and i'm gonna mention something else that i think is important for somebody who has been an environmental advocate um for many years and also a community organizer look what this is saying guys it's about to get local we're going to have to organize and we're going to have to build a movement that is more inclusive we're going to have to empower folks in cities we're gonna have to figure out this community solar situation the situation of folks in buildings and the emissions that they caused we're gonna have to figure out these issues or we um we aren't going to be able to avert catastrophic climate change so hawaii is on the absolute leading edge of that so in our last story i think there's something that's so interesting that was reported on bloomberg but i just wanted to report so this is about prince prince the pop musician turns out he was a benefactor of green energy so before he died he made an investment in green energy that's now helping solar startups so in 2011 prince spoke to a fellow named van jones a cnn commentator and human rights agit agitators always likes to describe himself in one time green jobs of advisor to president barack obama he said if i have a quarter million dollars what can i do with it jones recalled an interview my wife said he should put solar panels all over oakland so that led to the creation of powerhouse a rare for-profit incubator dedicated to putting clean tech entrepreneurs together with investors and it's helped 43 startups get on their feet and an era where venture capital funding for renewables has plunged so really cool story who knew and and the story also says that prince wanted his involvement in this to remain anonymous so we love you we miss you prince i'm so glad to report that he was a he believed in clean energy and he wanted to see folks in oakland and other people other places and other people succeed to create clean energy so with that we will say goodbye thank you so much for watching power up why he mellow mahalo and aloha