Fight against Industrialization of Ocean View

“DANGER”, “KEEP OUT”, “HIGH VOLTAGE”. These will be the signs of the future In Ocean View if SPI wins our case before the Public Utilities Commission.

SPI, a large solar developer, wants to put solar facilities on 27 housing sites in Ocean View. Each site is three acres. Each site will have over a thousand panels. Each site will be surrounded by eight-foot security fencing. Each fence will bear signs of an industrial plant. The sites are scattered among existing homes. The sites are very obviously intended for homes, not industry.

We are asking for donations so that we can hire two lawyers to represent us at a hearing before the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) plus write the required post-hearing briefs.

We are very much in favor of solar power as an alternative to importing oil and burning it, BUT there are good solar projects and there are bad solar projects. This is particularly invasive and objectionable as the motivation is inordinately high profits (at the expense of Big Island residents, of course).

All this is potentially allowable because of the FIT Program which rewards participants with excessively high rates. If built, SPI will be rewarded with 24c per kWh for daytime power, while above-board solar projects with storage batteries, will earn less than 9c per kWh – and still make a good profit. As if that is not disgraceful enough, Hawai’i Island has an excess of daytime energy, so energy from this project will likely be curtailed (i.e. wasted) so oil burning for power will not be lessened by this boondoggle project.

The fight against this project began with community meetings in 2015, followed by a community meeting with the then-head of the PUC, Mr. Randy Iwase in February 2016, who proved to be sympathetic to the community. In August 2016, we (the Bosteds) filed a Formal Complaint against HECO and HELCO. We alleged that HELCO mismanaged the FIT Program by accepting the Ocean View project into the FIT program, despite the rules. Mr. Iwase placed a hold on the project so that the complaints could be investigated. That hold is still in place.

Since then, acting pro se, we have filed hundreds of pages of briefs, documents and evidence before the Commission in docket 2016-0224. Now, at last, the PUC has set a date for the long-promised hearing. The Commission will have to decide whether the 27 three-acre sites should be considered as individual projects, or if they should be viewed in the aggregate as one large 6.75 MW project that has been segmented with the intention of circumventing the Competitive Bidding Process, which applies to large projects, and thus fraudulently qualifying for windfall rates.

We think we have a strong case with a plethora of supporting evidence ranging from correspondence, business filings, leases, and canceled checks, to SEC filings, engineers’ reports and more. They all show the Ocean View project historically being envisioned and managed as one large project, from acquiring the sites, to applying for permits.

The other side will argue that since most of the sites are NOW in the name of shell companies, each FIT project is individually owned. They prefer to ignore the fact the 18 shell companies, incorporated in Delaware, were set up at least six months AFTER one of the original applicants, Solar Hub Utilities, was admitted to the FIT program. Solar Hub Utilities owned 17 projects outright. There are no arguments to support them being individually owned. And there is an original applicant, South Point FIT LLC, which is in the program with eight FIT projects – all to be located on contiguous sites. Again, no argument that South Point was the sole owning entity. However, SPI bought the 17 places (which cost Solar Hub $17,000) for $2 million, and THEN put each FIT project in the name of an LLC that is solely owned by Calwaii LLC, which is also solely owned by SPI.

If that sounds complicated, here it is again – only very simplified. In a nutshell:-

Company A gets 18 places, Company B gets 9 places.

Later, Company C buys Company A’s 18 places and makes each place an LLC.

Later, Company C buys Company B, LLC.

Now Company C now owns 19 companies that own 27 places.

Question? Are these 27 places legally held by Company C?

IF the answer is “Hell, NO”, then we win.

Please note - SPI only owns “places in the FIT queue”. There is no contract. No site work has been done. There is no question of breaking contracts or compensation for wasted bulldozing or building. This is the ideal time to either relocate or end the project and save the island from expensive power.

This is the epitome of a David vs. Goliath situation. Who has the wisdom of Solomon to resolve it?

On February 2, we were told that the PUC had granted our request for a hearing. Hooray!! We have been strongly advised to seek the help of an experienced green energy lawyer to present our case in the best light. Fortunately, Ryan Hurley and Bianca Isaki have agreed to take our case. Mr. Hurley was a PUC lawyer from October 2013 to November 2014. He has also worked for the Blue Planet Foundation, the Hawai’i State Energy office, and the State Auditor’s office. He has been in private practice for the past five years. He has had experience representing communities on Maui and Oahu. His passion is renewable clean energy. We will soon meet Ms. Isaki and can add her bio to this description.

We are asking for your help to pay Mr. Hurley and Ms. Isaki for their legal work to make sure SPI’s project is not built in Ocean View. We need them to represent us at the PUC pre-hearing on March 2, and the hearing on March 9. They also must write a final brief on our behalf, and then shoot down the briefs from HECO and SPI. They have agreed to a deep discount on their fees and will charge us a very reasonable $100 per hour – instead of a much higher rate than they normally charge

Please donate as much as you can. Any unused funds will be returned proportionately to donors once the case is decided. Your donation will only be used for the upcoming hearings and related costs going forward. We ask nothing for the thousands of hours and dollars that we have already put into this battle since 2016. That was our gift to you. You can express your mahalos by generously contributing to this fund!

Please kokua.

Mahalo, and blessings,

Annie & Peter Bosted