Tag Archives: Office of Hawaiian Affairs

It’s Time to Speak Up in Support of TMT

April 28, 2015 Richard Ha 1 Comment

It is time. We need to speak up in support of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) now.

There are two easy ways to do this:

1) Please take this very quick, five-question OHA survey. It will literally only take you a minute or two.

2) In addition to the survey, we all need to speak up and tell OHA that we support the TMT. We cannot be afraid or intimidated to testify. There’s been too much of that, and there is too much at stake not to speak up.

Please email the OHA trustees before their meeting this Thursday, 4/30/15, and let them know, in your own words, that you support the TMT.

For your convenience, here are their email addresses:

robertl@oha.org, colettem@oha.org, petera@oha.org, reynoldf@oha.org, rowenaa@oha.org, crayna@oha.org, hulul@oha.org, dana@oha.org, leia@oha.org

For your own information, here is some good background about the TMT. The first offers clear, accurate, and easy-to-understand questions and answers about the TMT, and the second is a timeline showing the entire TMT process from 2008 to today:

Thank you for speaking up in support of the TMT by this Thursday. We who support the TMT haven’t been speaking out, but we need to. It’s time.

Mauna Kea

OHA & the Thirty Meter Telescope

April 17, 2015 Richard Ha 3 Comments

Richard Ha writes:

I testified at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) on Wednesday regarding the protests over the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Sixty-five people showed up, the vast majority of them in favor of the TMT.

I introduced myself as a Big Island farmer who produced more than 100 million pounds of fruits and vegetables in the last 35 years. I flunked out of the University of Hawai‘i and then got drafted and went to Vietnam, where the unspoken rule was that we all come back or no one does. After we all came back, I returned to school and majored in accounting to be able to keep score. I was the only person from Hawai‘i to attend five Peak Oil conferences. I have attended most of the TMT meetings over the past seven years.

I made two main points.

1. OHA needs to act like parents and kupuna.

We are starting to see lots of outside Islanders coming to stick their spoon into Big Island business. Activist Walter Ritte even came from Moloka‘i to advocate for the removal of all the telescopes from Mauna Kea.

When Big Islanders were in charge, I didn’t worry about public safety. Now, though, I am very worried. We are seeing folks wearing hoodies and bandanas, and they’re hiding their identities. The leaders have got to stop that. It puts a hair trigger on the situation, and it’s dangerous.

We saw someone like that recently, and we knew he wasn’t from the Big Island because he was driving a bright red Jeep. Nobody drives a bright red Jeep; those are only rental cars.

The folks protesting are getting false hope that they can get all the telescopes off the mountain if only they push back harder. And the discourse is pilau. People are insulting people. This is very dangerous.

OHA needs to act like parents and kupuna. This is not rocket science. You folks all know that the process was followed; that is why the permits were issued. Don’t give people false hope. The young people protesting who are college-age now were only in middle school when we started the process to make sure the project was done right. This is why they don’t know about the intricate, seven-year process the Thirty Meter Telescope people went through to work through all the issues the protestors are just now talking about.

It is OHA’s job now to do the right thing. Just tell them—they’re not going to change the law. Letting them think that will possibly escalate the problem and the mounting safety issues. That’s the kind of thing that is going to cause something to happen. We don’t want anybody getting hurt.

2. Remember what the TMT will bring to our community. The Big Island has the lowest median family income of all the counties. And the Kona side is higher than the county average, making the east side even lower than the county’s average. The Pahoa/Ka‘u/Kea‘au school complex is in the top four in the state for the free/subsidized lunch program. This island’s spouse abuse, substance abuse, and teen pregnancy rates are high.

Henry Yang, president of the TMT Corporation, came to the Big Island to talk with the community fifteen times. He came personally and talked to folks on the other side of the table, and he listened. He didn’t assign someone else to come; he came himself. That’s how the THINK fund was born. Nothing fancy, just listen. They are developing a work force so kids now in high school can follow a path to jobs. They did an environmental study, instead of taking the shorter way.

The TMT set the bar for how other big companies should interact with the community. To turn them away would be the most irresponsible thing we could do.

The Big Island needs jobs, and we need to diversify our economy to protect ourselves from rising oil and gas prices. The TMT is free money. The THINK fund helps our kids not fortunate enough to have gotten a Kamehameha Schools education. They are the ones who need help. Once you get an education, no one can take it away.

Acting like parents and kupuna will ensure that you address public safety as well as move up the folks on the lower rungs of the economic ladder—those not fortunate enough to go to Kamehameha Schools, or to take advantage of the GI bill like me. Education is the great equalizer.

Mauna Kea, Peak Oil

OHA Will Not File Contested Case Hearing

July 16, 2014 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees decided against filing a contested case hearing about the Thirty Meter Telescope.

Five of us flew over from the Big Island to testify at the OHA meeting. We were all concerned about the possibility of losing the education and employment opportunities that the TMT will bring to future generations.

I was very impressed at the power of the testimony of the group from the Big Island. Wally, Nani, Herring and Bill’s testimony was eloquent, from the heart, powerful, and simple. I was very proud to be a part of this group of strong, community-minded people.

Left to right: Bill Brown, Herring Kalua, Wallace Ishibashi, Nani Kahea, and myself

After we testified, the OHA Trustees went into deliberations, and a few hours later we received word that the Trustees decided not to file a request for a contested case hearing.

Here is the testimony I gave:

Aloha trustees.

Please do not initiate a contested case hearing. Several things happened recently that could have a strong bearing on your decision.

My name is Richard Ha. I am a farmer on the Big Island and our family and our workers have produced more than a hundred million pounds of fruits and vegetables over the last 35 years. My family is Kamahele from lower Puna.

I was the only person from Hawai‘i to have attended five Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conferences. I went because I wanted to learn about oil and how we could adapt to a world of rising oil costs.

Albert Bartlett, a professor of physics and a member of ASPO, said the greatest failing of humankind is its inability to understand the exponential function.

If someone stood in the middle of Yankee Stadium at 12:00 noon with an eye dropper, and started a drop of water and doubled it every minute and you were handcuffed to a chair at the top, how many minutes woukd you have to escape? The answer is 50 minutes. At what time would the stadium still be 93 percent empty? 12:45! At that point, the water would only be 5 feet high and hardly anyone would be aware that there was a serious problem ahead in just five minutes. That is the nature of compound growth.

Several weeks ago, the Energy Information Agency, the government agency that keeps track of energy information, said the Monterey Shale, consisting of two-thirds of the nation's oil reserves, was downgraded to just four percent of its previous estimation. The nation's total oil reserve supply before the announcement was estimated to be 100 years. This means that our oil reserves is estimated to last somewhere around 34 years, and only if the price is high enough can we get all of it. So, if oil supply is limited, the price will eventually rise.

The problem is that at $150 per barrel oil, our tourism industry will be hit hard. At $200 per barrel oil, an IMF economic team modeling that situation could not model any further because they were in uncharted waters. I heard the team leader, Michael Kumhoff say at the last ASPO conference that the results would be utterly improbable. Utterly improbable??? Scary words coming from an economist.

My good friend Robert Rapier, a well-respected chemical engineer who has been on 60 Minutes and many news and magazines, gave his take on British Petroleum's recent annual report. He basically said that if it wasn't for the shale oil and gas boom in the U.S., the world would already be going down the backside of the oil supply curve. And if not for that, we could already have been seeing $150 to $200 per barrel oil. That was just last week!

Will the shale gas and oil boom last? In the data from 19,000 oil and gas wells, we see that the average shale oil and gas well lasts only five years. Clearly that is not sustainable. In contrast, the Saudi old oil finds have lasted for more than 50 years. Things have clearly changed.

So, what happens if China, India and other countries start to become worried that we have economic trouble ahead? The Chinese know that you cannot be king if you cannot feed the people. Would they cut funding for the TMT? There is a strong possibility they and other countries would. The TMT represents money going out and no money coming in.

I was on the TMT subcommittee of the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board, so I was involved from the start. I volunteered because I was determined that if it was going to be done, it should be done right. Henry Yang, the new president of the TMT, was a good guy that you could do business on a handshake. He flew in to the Big Island 15 times and never talked to the press. He met with the people on the ground. The last trip he asked me where they should go since they had a couple of hours. I suggested we go to Kupuna Day at Keaukaha. When we got there, the people were so used to him and Jean Lou Chameau, president of Cal Tech, visiting them, they just said, Come, come, come, go eat, where you guys going?

From meeting with the people, Henry Yang came to find out that the lowest common denominator that folks on all sides of the issue could agree ok was Keiki education. That is how the THINK $1 million annual education fund was born.

One of the most important principles I learned came from Kumu Lehua Veincent, former principal of Keaukaha Elementary school. When I first got involved, I suggested to him that we could ask the TMT folks to give his students five full-ride scholarships to the best schools in the nation. He thought about it a few minutes and then he said these profound words. He said simply: "What about the rest?"

And that is what this decision is all about. What about the rest?

Aloha

Geothermal

A Geothermal Column in OHA Newspaper

June 4, 2014 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

Do you read the Office of Hawaiian Affairs monthly newspaper Ka Wai Ola? You can download the June 2014 issue here, and if you scroll down to page 28, you’ll see Trustee Robert Lindsey’s column.

He asked Davianna McGregor and me to write about geothermal in his column this month. She writes from the “anti” perspective, and I write from the “pro” one.

It was not a debate. I have no expertise in the cultural area of geothermal, though I am very respectful of the cultural aspect. I’m sharing my mana’o as a 35-year farmer and the only person from Hawaii to have attended five Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conferences on the mainland. I’ve visited both Iceland and the Philippines to see geothermal operations and I have a good sense of how and why it would work for us here.

Geothermal

Testimony to OHA Supporting Geothermal

April 17, 2013 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

OHA is contemplating investing in geothermal. I am in favor of that, for the reasons that I mention below.

I sent the following testimony to OHA:

***

Subject: OHA testimony re: Huena Power Co/IDG

April 17, 2013

Office of Hawaiian Affairs
711 Kapiolani St.
Honolulu, HI 96813

Aloha Chair Machado and Board members of OHA:

The Geothermal working group report, which Wallace Ishibashi and I co-chaired, recommended that geothermal be the primary base power for the Big Island. OHA was represented on the working group by trustee Robert Lindsey.

I believe that OHA should participate in geothermal development because it is an income source for OHA to provide services to the Hawaiian people. And it can influence the course of our people’s history.

Geothermal-generated electricity is proven technology, affordable and environmentally benign. The Big Island is expected to be over the “hot spot” for 500,000 to a million years so its price is expected to be stable.

The Pahoa School Complex in Puna, at 89%, has the highest number of students in the State who participate in the free/reduced school lunch program. Participation is related to family income. The Big Island has had electricity rates 25% higher than O‘ahu’s for as long as anyone can remember. So a large portion of the school budget, that should go to education, goes instead to pay for electricity. Yet the best predictor of family income is education. A lower electricity rate, generated by geothermal, will have a direct effect on education. And if OHA, through its influence, emphasizes education in the community, there will be even more positive results.

Rising electricity rates act like a giant regressive tax. The folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder are affected disproportionately. Those who can leave the grid, leave. Those who cannot leave end up paying more for the grid. Too often those folks will be Hawaiians.

Hawaiians should be able to live in their own land. Yet there are more Hawaiians living outside of the State, because they needed to move elsewhere to find jobs to raise their families. Exporting our children is the same as losing our land. OHA is in a position to drive the agenda so Hawaiians can afford to live at home.

During the development of the Geothermal Working Group report, Rockne Freitas arranged a meeting with Carl Bonham, Executive Director of the University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization (UHERO), and some staff.

I asked Dr. Bonham two key questions: “Is it fair to say that if the Big Island were to rely on geothermal energy for its primary base power as oil prices rises, shouldn’t we become more competitive to the rest of the world?” He said that was fair to say.

I asked: “Then is it fair to say that our standard of living would rise?” He said: “Yes.”

I am a farmer on the Hamakua coast with family ties — Kamahele — in lower Puna. I farmed bananas at Koa‘e in the late 70s and early 80s. I have been to five Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conferences. I went to learn and to position my business for the future. I found that the world has been using two and three times the amount of oil than it has been finding for more than 30 years and that trend continues. The price of oil has quadrupled in the last 10 years.

Until the first ASPO conference, I was just minding my own business, being a banana farmer. But what I learned became my kuleana. I did not ask for it.

Until last year, when Kamehameha Schools sent Giorgio Calderone and Jason Jeremiah and Noe Kalipi went to the conference, I was the only person from Hawai‘i to attend. The subjects were always data driven and conclusions could be duplicated.

We have the resources here to dodge the bullet. We need to drive a clear agenda for the benefit of all the people, not just a few.

One of the controversial issues in the Puna district is H2S gas. I went to Iceland and sat in the Blue Lagoon, where a geothermal plant within a quarter mile emits geothermal steam into the atmosphere. Millions of tourists visit the Blue Lagoon for health purposes.

There are small geothermal wells within the city that are used to heat the residences and businesses. If you did not know what to look for, you wouldn’t even know they were there. I walked by and touched the walls.

A long term study of the effects of H2S on people who suffer from asthma was just completed. It was done in Rotorua. They found no correlation of asthma to daily ambient H2S levels of 20,000 parts per billion over a three-year period. The study indicated that there might be a beneficial effect because it relaxes the smooth muscles. See link above.

The human nose can detect levels of H2S at incredibly low levels: 5 parts per billion. The Department of Health requires reporting when levels exceed 25 parts per billion. The Rotorua study was done for three years at average levels that were 20,000 parts per billion. OSHA allows geothermal plant workers to work in a 10,000 parts per billion environment for 8 hours per day without a mask.

Wallace Ishibashi and I went to the Philippines with the delegation that Mayor Kenoi put together. We visited a geothermal plant that sat on a volcano that last erupted 100,000 years ago. Mauna Kea last erupted 4,000 years ago. We may have more resources than we know.

The Phillipines and Hawai‘i started geothermal exploration at the same time. They now have in excess of 1,200MW, while we have 38MW. We are so far behind them, a supposedly Third World country, that it is embarrassing.

OHA is in a unique position to be able to influence the future. It is as if we are getting ready to duplicate that first voyage from the south so many years ago. It’s not whether or not we are going. It’s who should go, and what should we put in the canoes? Mai‘a maoli? Popoulu? What else?

Richard Ha
President, Mauna Kea Banana Company

I am a member of the Hawaii Clean Energy Steering Committee, Board of Agriculture and farmer for 35 years.

Geothermal, Peak Oil

Democratic Party Resolution Supports Geothermal for Baseload Electrical Power

December 28, 2011 Richard Ha 1 Comment

The following is a resolution that the Hawaii County Democratic Party adopted at its 2011 County Convention. It recognizes the value of geothermal as an indigenous resource, and it recognizes that low cost is a relevant and important aspect that benefits society.

It also notes that the EPA has directed the HECO companies to retrofit its oil-fired plants to comply with emission standards. But that will cause oil-fired plants to stay in operation longer than desirable, and will result in higher cost to ratepayers.

Note especially this:

“NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Hawai‘i County Committee of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i hereby formally requests the 2012 Hawai‘i State Legislature to direct the Public Utilities Commission to require HELCO to develop a timely plan to retire its fully depreciated fossil fuel power generation facilities and accept geothermally generated electrical power as the primary baseload source. HELCO should continue to include other alternative energy sources – such as wind, solar and hydro – in its mix of sources, but geothermally generated electricity must become the primary baseload source for Hawai‘i Island within the next five years; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED THAT the PUC should continue to implement contractual procedures between HELCO and geothermal power producers that represent an equitable return on investment but, as important, reduce the kilowatt hour cost to consumers whenever possible.”

The Resolution:

Requesting the 2012 Legislature to Mandate PUC to Require HELCO to Develop A Timely Action Plan To Retire All Depreciated Oil-Fired Power Plants on Hawai’i Island And Transition to Geothermally Generated Electricity As the Island’s Primary Baseload Power Source

WHEREAS, the Hawai‘i County Democratic Party adopted a resolution at its 2011 County Convention supporting the use of indigenous, renewable geothermal energy to generate baseload electrical power to (1) reduce dependency of imported fossil fuels, (2) reduce our carbon footprint and other environmental risks, and (3) hold the line or reduce electrical energy costs to consumers; and

WHEREAS, Puna Geothermal Venture has proven the safety and reliability of geothermally generated electrical power for Hawai‘i Island consumers for about 18 years; and

WHEREAS, this geothermal power has also generated royalty payments to the State and County of Hawai‘i and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs running in the millions of dollars over the past 18 years; and

WHEREAS, the Public Utilities Commission has in the past year initiated new contractual procedures between HELCO and PGV which are successfully reducing the kilowatt hour cost of geothermally generated power to consumers; and

WHEREAS, all but one of HELCO’s existing fossil fuel-dependent power generation facilities on Hawai‘i Island are fully depreciated but continue to be operated, which has destructive environmental and economic consequences, including forcing Hawai‘i Island consumers to pay the highest kilowatt hour charge in the state – a cost that will continue to increase as the global peak oil situation further drives up the cost of fossil fuel;

WHEREAS, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has recently directed all HEI companies including HELCO to retrofit existing oil fired plants to comply with EPA emission standards. This expensive undertaking will force continued usage of these plants and perpetuate a level of emissions and kilowatt hour costs that exceed that of geothermal. Also, this investment – which will inevitably be borne by consumers – should, instead, be dedicated to the transition to environmentally and economically preferred geothermal power production and/or distribution;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Hawai‘i County Committee of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i hereby formally requests the 2012 Hawai‘i State Legislature to direct the Public Utilities Commission to require HELCO to develop a timely plan to retire its fully depreciated fossil fuel power generation facilities and accept geothermally generated electrical power as the primary baseload source. HELCO should continue to include other alternative energy sources – such as wind, solar and hydro – in its mix of sources, but geothermally generated electricity must become the primary baseload source for Hawai‘i Island within the next five years; and

# # # # #

Big Island, Biofuel, Community, Geothermal, Peak Oil

Hawaiian Perspectives in Support of Geothermal

May 30, 2011 Richard Ha 2 Comments

Over the weekend I was on the panel of a Hilo Community meeting called “Hawaiian Perspectives in Support of Geothermal Development.” It was held at the UH Hilo, and I estimate that about 50 people attended. By far the majority of the folks there were in favor of geothermal development, provided it is done in a pono way.

Each panel member spoke about his/her area of interest.

From left to right, this is Wallace Ishibashi, co-chair of the Geothermal Working Group, and member of the Royal Order of Kamehameha; Robert Lindsey, Big Island OHA trustee, Geothermal Working Group member; Mililani Trask, Hawaiian legal rights attorney and consultant to Innovations Development Group.

I talked from the point of view of a banana farmer who, five years ago, found his operating costs rising, and attended three Peak Oil conferences to learn how to position his business in a future of rising oil prices.

I talked about how there are serious outside forces at work. The world has been using twice as much oil as it has been finding, and has been doing so for the last 20 years. The winds of change will soon be blowing and oil prices will be rising. It is very serious, and we cannot afford to insist on individual agendas. It is no longer about us now; it is about future generations.

There are many ways that we can deal with depleting oil.

HECO’s plan of fueling with biofuels will cause electricity rates to rise. Rising electric rates means that folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder will be the first to have their lights shut off.

There are people who advocate small scale, individual solutions to energy independence. This approach will encourage those who are able to leave the grid to do so, and leave the folks that are unable to leave to pay for the grid.

Another, much better, alternative is to bring more geothermal on line. Geothermal is proven technology, clean and lower in cost than other base power solutions. The more geothermal we use, the more we protect ourselves from future oil shocks.

I told the group what I had asked Carl Bonham of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization: If we can maximize geothermal as our primary source of base power, will we become relatively more competitive to the rest of the world as oil prices rise? He said yes.

I told the group that we are lucky to have the options that we have, especially geothermal. Very few in the world are as lucky.

In modern Hawaiian history, our economy has taken, taken, taken and the culture has given given given. We are at a unique time now when the economy can give and the culture can receive.

Do we dare dream of prosperity for future generations? I believe that most felt that geothermal was the way to get us there.

There are a thousand reasons why “No can.” We are looking for the one reason why “CAN!”