This buyout idea is getting pretty serious

NextEra CEO Jim Robo and Hawaiian Electric Industries CEO Connie Lau will have to appear before the Public Utilities Commission and testify under oath about the $4.3 billion sale of HEI, if the state consumer advocate has his way. Up until now, all questions and answers regarding the sale, which needs PUC approval, have been in written form.

State Consumer Advocate Jeffrey Ono in a filing Wednesday asked the PUC to issue subpoenas to require the deposition and attendance of Robo and Lau because the two have unique knowledge and information concerning the “circumstances, events, rationale, and reasoning that resulted in NextEra’s decision to acquire the Hawaiian Electric Companies.”

Ono went a step further, requesting the PUC to compel a complete copy of all documents and opinions provided to the HEI board by HEI’s financial adviser, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. So much at stake, so many dramas.