U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa was one of just 41 House Democrats in October 2011 to vote to delay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s tougher clean air standards on industrial boilers.
Most House Democrats thought the vote was another plank in a Republican onslaught against environmental regulations, but Hanabusa saw something different. Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., Hawaii’s last remaining sugar mill, which employs 800 workers on Maui, could have been at risk if the new EPA rule was imposed as drafted.
"I think that one of the things that we needed to do here was to take that vote, and to make a strong showing, and to show that it was bipartisan," Hanabusa said. "It wasn’t just Republicans who were fighting the EPA."
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, Hanabusa’s opponent in the Democratic primary, argues that Hanabusa made a false choice between the environment and the economy. The EPA was already in the process of revising the rule based on public feedback.
"The EPA has shown a willingness to be flexible when it comes to Hawaii," the senator said. "And if she wanted to get the attention of the EPA, there was no need to undermine the Clean Air Act and vote with tea party Republicans."
During the primary, the two Democrats have disagreed over votes on Social Security, the Bipartisan Budget Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Arctic drilling. But their dispute over the vote to delay the EPA’s rule on industrial boilers, perhaps more than any other, gets closest to illustrating what each candidate believes is their own strength and, more importantly, their opponent’s weakness.
The EPA, responding to requirements in the Clean Air Act, issued a rule in 2004 to set stronger emission standards for industrial boilers to reduce air pollution and protect public health. Congress instructed the EPA to base such standards on technology and performance, rather than particular health risks, which are harder to define, so the agency uses what it calls "maximum achievable control technology." In regulatory shorthand, the rule has been dubbed "Boiler MACT."
Environmentalists and industry groups fought over the rule, and a federal court vacated the proposed standards in 2007. Under court order, the EPA issued revised emission standards for industrial boilers in 2010 and has continued to reconsider and rework the final details over the past four years based on industry and public feedback while court challenges proceed.
The understanding, as of today, is that boiler operators will have until January 2016 to comply with the stricter federal requirements.
Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., a subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc., has sugar plantation roots on Maui that go back to 1870. Three boilers serve the HC&S mill in Puunene, the last in the islands to produce raw and specialty sugars.
HC&S burns mostly bagasse, a byproduct of sugar cane, and coal to power the mill. Rick Volner, HC&S general manager, said the boilers generate enough electricity to make the mill self-sufficient and also provide about 5 percent of Maui’s energy needs through sale to Maui Electric Co.
"Without the boilers, or their cost-efficient operation, HC&S cannot remain in business," Volner said in a statement. "In its original form, the Boiler MACT rule imposed impractical emission standards that could not be met — financially, technologically or by the required deadlines — impacting thousands of commercial, industrial and institutional boiler operators across the nation. This was the situation for HC&S’ boilers, thus threatening HC&S’ continued operation."
The EPA, responding to complaints from industry and labor, has sought to make the rule on industrial boilers more flexible for companies like HC&S while still reducing air pollution. But Boiler MACT has been dragged into a much larger fight between the Obama administration and conservative Republicans over environmental regulations.
House Republicans, in particular, have repeatedly fought the EPA over regulations they argue will cost jobs and harm industry, including restrictions on coal-fired power plants.
In October 2011, the House approved a bill by U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., that would have delayed the EPA rule on industrial boilers and also given boiler operators more time to comply. Majority Republicans drove the 275-142 vote, but Hanabusa was one of 41 Democrats to vote for the delay.
Then-U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, who now serves with Schatz in the Senate, voted against the delay, mostly to send a message against Republican attempts to roll back EPA regulations, since the thought was the bill would not advance in the Senate. The White House had also said that President Barack Obama would likely veto the bill if it reached his desk.
In March 2012, the Senate rejected an amendment to a highway spending bill by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that would have delayed the EPA rule. The vote was 52-46, but the amendment needed 60 votes to pass.
U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka voted against a delay.
Both HC&S and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents workers at the sugar mill, have praised Hanabusa for her vote. HC&S also recognized Inouye for joining other senators in a letter to the EPA in 2010 outlining industry concerns about the rule.
"We appreciate Colleen Hanabusa’s votes to help save the jobs and protect the livelihoods of our members and their families on Maui," Donna Domingo, the ILWU president, said in a statement. "From her days representing our union as a labor attorney, she has always put the needs of working people first. Hundreds of our members and their families rely on job opportunities at HC&S and we are grateful to have Colleen fighting for them."
The union has endorsed Hanabusa in the primary.
National environmental and public health groups, however, criticized the House vote because it could have further delayed long-stalled emission standards that could improve air quality and reduce health problems such as asthma, cancer and heart disease.
In Hawaii, environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, which has endorsed Schatz, have been concerned about air pollution at the HC&S mill. In addition to emissions from the boilers, HC&S also conducts pre-harvest cane burning.
In June, the state Department of Health cited HC&S for more than 400 alleged violations of state clean air rules between 2009 and 2013 and assessed a $1.3 million penalty. The company has said that any violations were unintentional and plans to contest the penalty as excessive.
Hanabusa considers the vote on the EPA’s rule on industrial boilers one of several that demonstrate her independence and her ability to look deeper into federal legislation and see the potential impact on Hawaii. She said she would cast the same vote again today.
"It’s not an easy vote to do," the congresswoman said. "But it’s a vote that I feel had to be done. And the EPA slowed down. And I think the EPA needed it, too, to be able to slow down what it was doing, because it was under court order. And to come up with a set of rules that I believe is really workable."
Schatz counters that the issue was not as complicated as Hanabusa suggests.
"This was not a close call," the senator said. "Everybody wants to support the (HC&S) plantation, but there’s nobody in the congressional delegation that thought it was necessary to undermine the Clean Air statute in order to make sure that it was implemented well."
Schatz said Hanabusa "continues to think that we have to make a choice between a clean environment and a strong economy," adding, "And she’s flat wrong. That is not the choice that we have to make. We can and should fight for clean air and clean water and strong economic growth at the same time."
