Mayor shocks Heco
with proposal to regulate
power plants, power lines

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

A fight is looming over Mayor Jeremy Harris' plan to regulate how and where electrical power plants and power lines are built.

The city wants to regulate such facilities by requiring them to get plan review use permits from the City Council.

Hawaiian Electric Co. officials say there are enough regulations in place to cover any concerns without dragging the City Council into the process.

Heco's controversial Kamoku-Pukele power line plan is before the state Board of Land and Natural Resources and is on the verge of going before the Public Utilities Commission.

The most controversial part of the preliminary plan calls for overhead lines to run atop Waahila Ridge between Manoa and Palolo valleys.

City Planning Director Jan Sullivan introduced the amendment to the Land Use Ordinance, which would require a plan review use permit for power plants, 138-kilovolt or greater transmission lines and related facilities.

The measure was approved unanimously by the city Planning Commission on Aug. 11 and now goes to the City Council for adoption.

Sullivan said the plan review use process "will provide a single, comprehensive review of the electrical system, from the electrical power plants to the 138-kilovolt substation."

Henry Curtis of the environmental group Life of the Land applauded the city's move.

"While the city cannot block a project in its entirety, it will have a say on whether the technology should be overhead or underground, and which route it should take," Curtis said.

But Chuck Freedman, Heco spokesman, said requiring a permit would only duplicate what's currently mandated.

"There are a lot of permitting procedures that we have to go through, both state and county, that are required by law," Freedman said. That gives the public ample opportunity to comment, he said.

"The city, by this ordinance, is really trying to regulate what is already being regulated by the state Public Utilities Commission, and they can't do that."

Paul Shigenaga, Public Utilities Commission executive director, agreed. The Legislature gave his panel sole authority to review the need for major utility capital projects, he said, and "the authority to determine whether high voltage lines should be installed overhead or underground."

Thus, Shigenaga wrote, the city's planned regulation of Heco's projects is "invalid" and pre-empted by the PUC.

Officials with the PUC or Heco cannot recall when they have challenged the city's power to regulate a utility.

Harris said he won't budge from the issue.

"If that's their position, then they are in for a fight," the mayor said.

"There is no question that the city needs to control the proliferation of 138-kilovolt lines, which have tremendous negative impacts on the countryside," Harris said.

Heco's fears may be well-founded since Harris has made no secret that he wants all lines to be underground.

"They have no business putting that obtrusive line up that mountain ridge," Harris said. "It's just poor, short-term thinking that's going to be an eyesore for 100 years."

He added: "Basically, all the PUC looks at is the numbers and there's more to a decision like that than the numbers."