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By now everyone’s heard that Florida-based NextEra Energy ditched its attempt to take over our utilities (at a cost of $4.3 billion) and wasted no time moving on to bid on a bigger fish ($18.4 billion) in Texas.

On the way out the door, though, NextEra agreed to pay holding company Hawaiian Electric Industries — the corporate parent of utilities on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii Island — $90 million in what is called a reverse termination fee.

This type of break-up fee emerged during the 2008 economic crash to avoid litigation over damages allegedly suffered by a seller when a buyer fails to perform, in this case NextEra’s failure to win approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission to close the deal.

Call it what you will — reverse termination or break-up fee, liquidated damages — I think we should help HEI use this windfall wisely. It’s not clear how it would be taxed, if at all, but once paid there will be a lot left over, somewhere between $60 and $90 million.

No need to feel sorry for the HEI utilities, since NextEra will reimburse them an additional $5 million in merger expenses. This makes HEI whole again (assuming they didn’t overspend on attorneys, in which case they shouldn’t get any more anyway), and Hawaiian Electric Company’s ’s stock price hasn’t suffered. It hovered between $22 to $24 from 2011 through 2014 and closed at $31.05 on July 29, well after the merger tanked.

Instead, let’s think of the $90 million as potential unearned enrichment. After all, we, as captive customers, provide HEI’s monopoly utilities with value through our steady stream of monthly payments; this is what made the merger attractive to NextEra in the first place. Shouldn’t we see some benefit, instead of just the HEI corporate types?

I asked some stakeholders how HEI should apply this bonus and will start by saying no one thought shareholders should see a penny. No one thought HEI executives should benefit from this bonanza. I have to agree. In fact, I couldn’t find one time shareholders won a claim they are owed any benefit when a proposed merger collapses.

Here are some of the positive suggestions:

• “Spend some of it to put AC in classrooms.” Clearly our students need relief, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the DOE tried to exclude some of the classrooms on the neighbor islands as just not hot enough.

• “Reimburse the intervenors in the merger docket, especially state and county agencies that spent our tax dollars.” I’m sure nonprofit parties such as Sierra Club and Life of the Land would like to be added to the pay-back list: cost estimates ranged from $23,760 to $400,000 per intervenor.

• “Use the money to offset construction costs for projects already approved by the PUC.” One suggested using $90 million to reduce the $170 million bill for the Schofield Generating Station. This would clearly benefit the military and HECO, but what would it do for Maui Electric Company and Hawaii Electric Light Company customers?

• “Spend the money on the power supply improvement plans (PSIP) or other dockets requiring outside consultants. PSIP alone is estimated to cost $300,000.” Spending some of the $90 million this way just might produce power plans that benefit all utility customers. That hasn’t happened so far.

• “Give every dollar to customers!!” A fair suggestion, since everyone would equally benefit. But would it get the biggest bang for the $90 million bucks or dilute the windfall to a meaningless one-time dribble of a few dollars per household?

• “A portion should go to hire a neutral, objective third-party to drive the PSIP process. After several years of failure, it’s time to put this process into the hands of someone who doesn’t have an axe to grind.” Hard to disagree with this one, since the utilities are now on their fourth attempt to get it right.

• “Put it all into an interest-bearing trust account with utility customers as beneficiaries, open a new docket, and invite the submission of competing bids on ways to spend, with PUC oversight.” The utilities should like this one, even though HEI as a holding company is not regulated by the PUC. Since NextEra had no interest in maintaining HEI’s corporate structure — it only wanted the PUC-regulated utilities HEI that “holds” — it doesn’t seem fair to use a corporate façade to avoid an equitable distribution of the $90 million obligation. This would also avoid an inevitable public relations disaster should HEI attempt to keep the $90 million for its corporate self.

• “Apply it to a massive fuel hedge once oil drops to $35 a barrel.” Great idea, but I wonder if Gov. David Ige and Rep. Chris Lee would agree with this customer-friendly, cost-saving suggestion.

• “Under no circumstances should the utilities use this windfall on its ‘transformation’ – and then bury it in rates and try to recover the cost from us!” I have to admit I’m really shocked that anyone suspects the utilities might try to do this, aren’t you?

The Poetry Of Renewables

One suggestion — using the $90 million for renewables — deserves a shout-out for its lyrical flourish:

From Florida came a utility
That spent most its time (in futility)
To garner a snack
That prompted attack
And a scolding for lack of humility.

In the end the engagement was broken,
Left of its proposal, a token:
Ninety million and change
(Or some such in that range)
Just to prove that they hadn’t been jokin’.

And what shall we do with this boon?
Get ourselves all renewable, soon!
Our old suitor has exed us;
They’ve gone on to Texas,
When the order came out after June.

How would you divvy up HEI’s $90 million break-up fee? All of the above or something else? Post your thoughts below and share with others — Hawaii may never see another $90 million windfall.