As business leaders, consumers and concerned citizens, we have followed the public debate and hearings held by the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on the proposed merger between NextEra Energy and Hawaiian Electric Industries.

We are encouraged that the debate considers not only a clean energy future but a lower-cost clean energy future.

University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization studies confirm the direct relationship between lower electric bills and higher economic output and more job and wealth creation.

More growth means more tax revenue to meet our state’s financial challenges.

It makes common sense; the less we spend for electricity, the more consumers have to save and spend, and the more businesses can grow and hire.

We are not energy experts who know the specific path the state will follow toward the goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.

Even the experts see different paths, and those will surely change over the next 30 years as technology advances.

We do know two things for certain:

>> Any path will require significant investments, well exceeding the level that Hawaiian Electric has ever been in a position to make.

>> The path and specific investments will be determined by the relevant stakeholders following the regulatory process and subject to approval by the PUC, as they always have been. Hawaiian Electric — merged with NextEra or independent — can’t decide on its own.

Our state and counties have so many needs that demand resources. We need money to fix our roads and sewers and our K-12 and university facilities. We need money to house our homeless. We need money to meet vast unfunded government pension and retiree medical obligations. The list goes on, and the billions of dollars required are staggering for a state of 1.4 million residents. And we need billions to achieve a lower- cost clean energy future.

The only way to meet all these demands is to continuously grow our economy — generating more jobs, income and tax revenues — and attract new financial capital to be invested in Hawaii.

With NextEra, there is a partner who is willing and able to invest billions of dollars into Hawaiian Electric and Hawaii to achieve a lower-cost clean energy future. That’s billions we won’t have to borrow and attract from elsewhere, allowing us to address the other challenges.

Yes, Hawaiian Electric/NextEra will earn a reasonable return on investments that the PUC approves and allows them to make. Yes, ratepayers will pay for those investments through their bills over time. That is normal and true under every scenario; there is no free lunch or electrical grid. But if our path is to a lower-cost clean energy future, the investments will generate efficiencies and lower costs so that ratepayer bills decline even as we pay for the investments.

While we can choose to do everything on our own, it is clear even to the non-expert:

>> Hawaiian Electric with NextEra can raise more financial capital less expensively than Hawaiian Electric can by itself.

>> Hawaiian Electric with NextEra can purchase equipment and fuel much less expensively than Hawaiian Electric can by itself.

>> Hawaiian Electric with NextEra has more technical expertise and ability to develop and adopt technology solutions than Hawaiian Electric has by itself.

It makes sense to pursue the future with a strong partner that has the resources and expertise to achieve our goals at a lower cost and in a faster timeframe.

We should welcome NextEra to join Hawaiian Electric — as always, under the authority of the PUC — to help meet our critical needs and advance our economy and our state.