The Final Arguments Against NextEra
Intervening parties in the NextEra-Hawaiian Electric merger have made their final arguments.
If you’re still trying to figure out whether NextEra Energy’s $4.3 billion bid to buy Hawaiian Electric Industries will be good for Hawaii or not, we’ve got some reading for you. And there’s plenty of it.
Today is the deadline for 25 parties in regulatory hearings that will decide whether or not the sale can go through, to file their final briefs.
Based on 22 days of testimony before the Public Utilities Commission and tens of thousands of pages of direct and responsive filings, the briefs are supposed to offer the narratives of diverse parties to the case.
It is the last formal chance for representatives of two-dozen environmental nonprofits, county and state administrations, solar companies, the gas company and other groups to attempt to sway the commission. The deadline also applied to Consumer Advocate Jeff Ono.
Nearly all of those parties remain opposed to the sale of a power company that was founded in Hawaii 125 years ago.
There is little room for surprise in the briefs. Randy Iwase, the chair of the Public Utilities Commission, previously told Civil Beat that such filings should be based solely on the court record.
That said, they do offer an opportunity for the intervening parties and the Consumer Advocate to lay out their most convincing arguments.
The first of those final briefs posted on the PUC website was filed collectively by three groups — Life of the Land, the Puna Pono Alliance and — and can be
Others briefs are expected to appear on the PUC’s site in the coming days, and .
Some groups, like the Blue Planet Foundation, are highlighting the conditions that they believe the commission should attach to the deal, if NextEra is permitted to take control of Hawaiian Electric.
The next deadline involves NextEra and Hawaiian Electric. They must file their final reply briefs by May 2.
At some point after that, the three-member PUC is supposed to come to a majority decision on the largest utility merger in state history.
The commission’s final decision is expected in the coming months.
Feel free to peruse Civil Beat’s full coverage of NextEra and the merger process.
