NextEra Energy Inc. and Hawaiian Electric Industries made their final appeal Monday for the state to approve the planned sale of Hawaii’s largest utility to the Florida-based company.

In a filing with the state Public Utilities Commission, the two companies said the decision on the sale shouldn’t be made based on prejudice against a mainland company.

Ever since NextEra announced in December 2014 it plans to buy the state’s largest electrical utility — parent company of Hawaiian Electric Co., Hawaii Electric Light Co. and Maui Electric Co. — for $4.3 billion, the sale has attracted critics and supporters. Gov. David Ige and a coalition of groups in the Hawaii energy community are opposed to the sale. Many of the chambers of commerce and unions, such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 1260, have come out in support.

The PUC has the final say in whether the sale will close. The agency’s review attracted a record number of intervening groups — 30 — including the State Office of Planning; the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism; the state Consumer Advocate; solar companies; renewable-energy advocacy groups; and environmentalists.

NextEra said the arguments against the sale are invalid because they are outside of the parameters that the PUC is allowed to review the sale, and “it was obvious that many of the parties were motivated by their own commercial interests, others by an unfounded fear of what they thought might happen.”

One of the original reasons Ige opposed the sale was because he didn’t believe NextEra would help the state get to its goal of getting 100 percent of its energy from renewables by 2045. Since then NextEra has said it will accelerate Hawaii to the goal.

“They consistently say one thing but do another,” said state Rep. Chris Lee, chairman of the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee.

“Contrary to all their advertising, if you actually read NextEra’s closing argument, its entire premise is that they should not be required to provide any public benefit to the people of Hawaii because it ‘effectively imposes a burden on the shareholders,’” Lee said. “To me that says it all.”

NextEra and HEI said in the filing there is a “theme” in the opposition to the sale as it would result in the Hawaiian Electric Cos. being part of a mainland “outsider” company.

“Regardless of the evidence,” the filing said. “The open prejudice and hostility against an ‘outsider’ becoming the new parent of the Hawaiian Electric Companies, together with a disregard of the actual evidence, was a strong vein that ran throughout the proceedings.”

NextEra and HEI said the state Office of Planning was predisposed to reject the sale before the application was filed. NextEra and HEI pointed to a conversation the Office of Planning’s expert witness Scott Hempling had with former HECO Executive Vice President Robbie Alm in which Alm expressed concerns about NextEra being an “outsider.” NextEra said that conversation took place before NextEra’s application to buy HEI was filed with the PUC in January 2015. Alm was part of Gov. Ige’s transition team. He has a desk in the governor’s office, is unpaid and has no official title of his own.

“From this exchange and the subsequent appearance of witness Hempling on behalf of the Planning Office, it is crystal clear that the Planning Office had decided on its position to oppose the merger before the Application was even filed,” NextEra said.

NextEra said in the filing that the company should just be judged on its merits, whether the company is “fit, willing, and able to properly perform the service proposed,” and that the proposed transaction be “reasonable and consistent with the public interest.” State agencies and the state Consumer Advocate have argued that there needs to be a “substantial net benefit” and that “the utilities meet or exceed the state’s energy policy objectives.”