Governor puts his bets down on interisland cable

As his 2014 re-election campaign nears, some order is being brought by Gov. Neil Abercrombie to his sometimes-chaotic plans for the state’s over-the-top energy bills.

Hawaii continues to lead the nation in the cost of producing electricity, causing it to be one of the states most heavily invested in solar power.

This week, Abercrombie announced a new state energy policy at the fifth annual Asia-Pacific Clean Energy Summit.

In the past, Abercrombie has mostly resorted to hollering about those who oppose his desire for an undersea cable.

This week, in something of a slap to those leaders who have gone before him, Abercrombie decried past Hawaii attempts to work the alternative energy angle.

"This time we are going to take full advantage and press forward relentlessly on our diverse resources such as geothermal, solar, wind, hydro, bioenergy and biomass," Abercrombie said.

Not mentioned by Abercrombie was the fact that the keystone of his own energy policy during his campaign was to be a new Hawaii Energy Authority.

While campaigning against former GOP Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, Abercrombie said the Energy Authority would take policy oversight away from the state’s Energy Office and regulatory power from the state’s Public Utilities Commission.

Abercrombie’s plan would be more nimble and would review projects faster than the PUC.

Aiona, in contrast, had said he would beef up the PUC and then get to work enforcing existing state energy policy.

The Abercrombie promise of a super energy office evaporated soon after his election and, instead, the Democratic governor worked to put his own nominees on the PUC.

Leadership of the PUC may have turned out to be more independent than Abercrombie wanted because the PUC is now driving the state energy plan.

To that end, the state this week filed a 220-page comment with the PUC, which is investigating whether an undersea, power-carrying cable between Maui and Oahu is a good idea.

It put the state energy policy firmly in favor of the cable, saying the state has "reached the inescapable conclusion that the net benefits of constructing the cable project outweigh the costs."

The cable, the state said, will connect Oahu to wind farms on Maui.

During his speech, Abercrombie aimed at those who object to the neighbor island wind projects.

"Yes, we have to take points of view into account. But opinion that is merely opinion is not going to be good enough. It has to be science-based; it has to be reality-based in terms of the political nature of what is involved in global pricing right now where energy is concerned," Abercrombie said.

In the filing with the PUC, the state said: "There is no meaningful difference between a delay to that transformational process and opposition to it. Accordingly, urgency for action is a core strategy for furthering the State’s energy policies."

Both Abercrombie and Richard Lim, state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism director, say eventually Hawaii’s homes, businesses and utilities will be powered with geothermal-generated electricity, but that could be decades away. Meanwhile, the mainstay will be liquefied natural gas, brought here from the mainland, and Maui wind zipping over an undersea cable.

So far, Abercrombie has not shown any patience with critics.

If something as important, complex, expensive and controversial as the first of several envisioned power cables linking our state is to come about, much leadership will be required.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.