Firm allowed to shield data on wind project

The state Public Utilities Commission has authorized Castle & Cooke Properties to block the general public from seeing documents the company deems confidential that it will be filing as part of a regulatory review of its planned Lanai wind energy project.

The PUC last week approved a "protective order" sought by Castle & Cooke that will allow the company to black out proprietary information dealing with "trade secrets or other confidential research, development, commercial, customer usage, financial vendor or bid information."

The PUC in July launched an investigative proceeding to review the progress of Castle & Cooke’s original proposal submitted in 2008 to develop a 200-megawatt wind energy project on Lanai and have the electricity transmitted to Oahu via an undersea cable. Castle & Cooke sold most of Lanai to billionaire Larry Ellison in 2012 but retained the right to develop the wind project.

Seven entities — two energy developers, a renewable energy organization, two community groups and two private citizens — were given approval by the PUC to intervene in the case. Those with intervenor status are allowed access to confidential information and are allowed to play a larger role in the case than the general public.

Among the entities granted intervenor status, those that are not considered potential competitors to Castle & Cooke will have access to a greater breadth of confidential information than those who are considered competitors, according to the ruling.

Such two-tier protective orders have been used by the PUC in previous cases to allow intervenors to participate in the decision-making process without compromising sensitive company information, said Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land, one of intervenors that is not a Castle & Cooke competitor.

Officials from another community group that was granted intervenor status, Friends of Lanai, said the ruling appeared to be a positive development.

"As we read this order, it appears to us that the PUC has divided the parties into competitors and ‘noncompetitors,’ with Friends of Lanai in the noncompetitor category," said Robin Kaye, a spokesman for Friends of Lanai. "It’s our hope that this will subject Friends of Lanai to the standard protective order provisions, therefore enabling us to see all the documents in this docket," he said.

Castle & Cooke President Harry Saunders would not comment on the PUC ruling, saying company officials were still reviewing it.