HECO supports all customers

We’d like to correct several points in state Rep. Cynthia Thielen’s letter regarding photovoltaic systems ("HECO needs to adapt soon," Star-Advertiser, Oct. 17). We support rooftop solar and continue to approve systems for interconnection — more than 7,500 so far this year and a total of almost 48,000 overall.

Contrary to common misunderstanding, our utilities do not lose revenue when customers install PV. To support renewable energy, our state set policies designing our rates to recover the costs of serving all customers, even those with PV systems. PV customers still rely on the grid at night and when it’s cloudy.

However, the costs to serve PV customers are increasingly being recovered from customers who do not have PV. This is why we’ve proposed changes to address this unfairness.

We understand it’s frustrating for customers waiting to install their systems. But we are responsible for the safety of customers and utility crews and keeping electric service stable and reliable for all. We’re very committed to finding the solutions to address these issues.

Jim Alberts
Senior vice president of customer service, Hawaiian Electric Co.

Paper irresponsible to publish poll

I agree with Angela Rickabaugh Shears (Star-Advertiser, Letters, Oct. 25).

I feel your declaring state Sen. David Ige in the lead based on "interviews with 605 likely voters" to be grossly irresponsible to the other candidates. Perhaps if you had interviewed me I might have told you what you wanted to hear, rather than what I really intended to do.

Please stick to reporting the real news instead of attempting to sway the voters in a manner likely to make some lose interest in going to the polls, since their candidate has already lost (according to you).

And now, just for that, I intend to vote against all of the candidates you support for all offices. Maybe your premature headlines will backfire.

Ann Ruby
Downtown Honolulu

Personality drives voters, poll shows

The recent Hawaii Poll demonstrated two disappointing trends ("Ige leads gov race," Star-Advertiser, Oct. 23).

Half the voters for James "Duke" Aiona and a third of those for state Sen. David Ige made their choice based on "personality or style" or "values similar to yours," while only 8 percent of Aiona and 13 percent of Ige voters chose based on "stand on the budget or other fiscal issues" or "like his programs/like his stand on issues."

It’s kind of like saying, "I like him but I don’t really care or know what he stands for." It reinforces the whole argument that the election really boils down to a personality contest.

The second disappointing trend was that nearly a fourth of Ige voters chose their reason as simply "party." It’s the knee-jerk, just-vote-for-the-Democrat mentality.

Steve Dang
Kaimuki

King Street traffic ruined by bike lane

The H-1 rehabilitation project is a huge success. The additional lane drastically reduces traffic.

Now Mayor Kirk Caldwell does the opposite to King Street by building a "cycle track." I have driven King Street from Cooke to Piikoi for 20 years, Monday to Friday after work. The traffic is now horrible. Last week at 6 p.m. it took 11 minutes to get to Piikoi street.

Almost everyone pays taxes and some of us pay very high vehicle taxes and gasoline taxes to pay for the road maintenance and upgrades.

Maybe we need to have annual registration fees for bikes now that bikers are being given huge enhancements on our roadways.

Why is it that motor vehicle owners who pay the bulk of the money are treated like second-class citizens and pedestrians and bikers are treated like royalty?

Many bikers and pedestrians are so rude that they jump into the crosswalks on the "Don’t Walk" signal or with only four seconds remaining, and we drivers have to jam our brakes or get a ticket.

Frank Young
Kakaako

Ebola quarantine makes health sense

The major argument against the proposal to quarantine travelers from West African countries where Ebola is epidemic seems to be that it would deter medical personnel from volunteering to assist those Ebola-stricken countries. How real is that argument?

First, if volunteers are willing to risk illness and death from Ebola, they are not likely to be deterred by a quarantine for 21 days upon re-entry.

Second, volunteers are people of compassion who care for their fellow human beings; they are most likely to be averse to exposing others to the risk of contracting Ebola.

It’s been argued that quarantine can wait until the person becomes symptomatic, but when is a person symptomatic?

Keeping track of when a person becomes symptomatic once he has mingled with the population is problematic.

Given the fatality of the disease and the risk of contracting it, we should always err on the side of safety.

Nelson S.W. Chang
Kaneohe

SHOPO president denigrates public

State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO) president Tenari Ma‘afala, in his union’s two-page ad on Oct. 27, writes that he recognizes that "valid concerns" have been expressed by the community regarding recent police actions.

But then he characterizes these concerns as "peppered with innuendos, misleading information, and shameless assumptions," and he blames "State and County government leaders" (read: the Women’s Legislative Caucus and the mayor). This is a shameless assumption, one that denigrates the legitimate questions of our elected officials, who are duty-bound to ask them.

Ma‘afala apparently is trying to reassure the public concerning the integrity of the Honolulu Police Department.

With his rant against the concept of civilian oversight of his membership, he has achieved exactly the opposite.

Kevin O’Leary
Kalihi