Kaʻū News Briefs Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023

    Daniel G. Swanson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, attorney for Hū Honua, said, “Hū Honua’s newly constructed facility would bring reliable, renewable energy to Hawai'i Island at a competitive price, but sits idle today solely due to Hawaiian Electric’s predatory and anticompetitive conduct, which it has ruthlessly wielded to entrench and expand its monopoly over Hawai'i’s power sector.”
   The statement says that Hawai'i residents "already face the highest average electricity prices by far in the

Hu Honua lost in the Hawai'i Supreme Court and is seeking relief in federal court.

United States—nearly three times the U.S. average price—due to costly imported petroleum products being burned in Hawaiian Electric’s aging and increasingly unreliable power generation facilities, whose costly operation continues to be extended and protected by Hawaiian Electric’s monopoly."
    Hū Honua contends that by keeping Hu Honua out of the market and acquiring the largest independent power plant on Hawai'i Island in 2017, "Hawaiian Electric has cornered more than 90 percent and at times nearly 100 percent of all firm power generation capacity on the Island. Since 2017, ratepayers have seen their electric rates skyrocket by 50-100 percent or more while energy reserve margins have deteriorated, and the risk of power outages has increased. Hawai'i Island residents have been instructed at least nine times between August 2022 and March 2023 to reduce power consumption during peak hours."

    Hawaiian Electric and Life of the Land have not yet responded or commented on Hū Honua's latest federal court filing.

Hawaiian was the first cultural component of Kaʻū presented  at the Rural Health Community Association's 25th anniversary. Photo by Julia Neal

KAʻŪ RURAL HEALTH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION CELEBRATED ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARY on Saturday, with a program on the heritage of Kaʻū communities. Held at Pāhala Community Center, it included dance, music and food of people who migrated here, from Polynesians who became Hawaiians to Chinese, Japanese, Okinawan, Filipino, Korean, and Portuguese to Latin American immigrants who come here to work in agriculture. 

    National anthems from the homelands were played before short histories and presentations of traditional dress, dance and music were given. Decorations featured the checkered palaka table cloths in red and white and blue and white, and centerpieces with flags of homeland countries pinned into peeled banana stalks. The cultural presentation was produced by Sophia Hanoa and Kaʻū Advisory Council, led by Kupuna Jessie Ke.

     The celebration also honored founder and Executive Director of Kaʻū Rural Health Community Association Jessie Marques, who is instrumental in numerous health initiatives, from Kaʻū Hospital being federally designated as a critical care facility to organizing Certified Nursing Assistant education and research on lung health during times of volcanic activity. The organization has also been active in promoting and cosponsoring vaccination drives during the COVID pandemic and into the future. Many of its youth members have developed careers in health.

Mayor Mitch Roth and Kaʻū Rural Health Community  Association founder and Executive Director Jessie  Marques at the 25th Anniversary celebration. Photo by Julia Neal

     Mayor Mitch Roth honored Marques with a certificate of appreciation. He recalled being involved with the organization at the time of its founding and praised Marques for the many years of hard work to build Kaʻū Rural Health Community Association to provide its services to the community. 

    Numerous current and former board members and other supporters were acknowledged, including CU Hawai'i federal credit union, which gave Kaʻū Rural Health Community Association $3,000 earlier this year.  

     The celebration wrapped up with food sampling from the cultures that make up Kaʻū and with a Taiko drumming group that invited the audience to participate.