Where Are You, NextEra Energy?
The Florida-based company聽didn’t attend the Maui Energy Conference.
As the second full day of the drew to a close Thursday, some people were wondering aloud where NextEra Energy was this week.
The Florida-based energy giant was a major sponsor of the event, which focused on Hawaii鈥檚 goal of powering the islands entirely with renewable energy sources by 2045. And yet no executive or underling could be found on a single panel or listening in the crowd.
The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission is considering whether to approve NextEra鈥檚 offer to buy Hawaiian Electric Industries for $4.3 billion. A decision is expected this summer.
Some suspected that the deal isn鈥檛 likely to go through, so NextEra figured why bother. Others suggested the company is feverishly working on聽its final briefs to the PUC.
Reached by email, NextEra spokesman Rob Gould said Thursday that it was 鈥減erhaps conflicting schedules,鈥 but he added that he 鈥渃ertainly wouldn鈥檛 read anything into it.鈥
Read Civil Beat’s聽coverage of the NextEra case here.
