Honolulu Weekly

Last month at the State Capitol, Gov. Linda Lingle helped announce the signing of a new private agreement between Hawaiian Electric Industries, Massachusetts-based wind developer First Wind and landowner Castle & Cooke.

Dubbed the “Big Wind” agreement, the compact allows First Wind and Castle & Cooke to negotiate contracts to sell energy produced by wind farms both companies intend to build on Molokai and Lanai.

The compact would initially limit each farm to no more than 200 megawatts. First Wind hopes to build a wind farm at Hoolehua on lands overseen by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and then later on acreage owned by Molokai Ranch Limited (the now-defunct Molokai Ranch) which is a subsidiary of the Guoco group based in Hong Kong. Castle & Cooke­–which owns more than 90 percent of Lanai–intends to put up its turbines near the island’s northern tip. When completed, both farms will provide energy for Oahu’s electric grid via an undersea cable,

First Wind has been under investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office since July. The AG’s probe seeks to establish whether the firms had “improperly sought or obtained land-use agreements with citizens and public officials,” provided “improper benefits” to “public officials to influence their actions” and “entered into anti-competitive agreements or practices.”

Activist groups like Cochocton Wind Watch in Western New York lobbied New York AG Andrew Cuomo to investigate First Wind and other wind developers. CWW member Judy Hall told the Weekly last year that First Wind officials have-among other things- allegedly bribed Town Board members in the small town of Cohocton in order to get the necessary approval to build Cohocton 1, a 50 turbine wind farm.

The New York AG’s office instituted a Wind Industry Ethics Code on October 30 of last year which prohibits conflicts of interest between municipal officers and wind companies and–among other demands–requires disclosure of the names of all elected or town officials who have a financial stake in companies like First Wind. The code also requires a multi-agency task force be set to enforce its provisions.

Though First Wind and Noble have signed onto the code, Hall recently told the Weekly that First Wind failed at first to send the AG’s office a list of officials who have leaseholder contacts or financial interests in the company. She also notes that Cohocton 1, while completed, is still not operational.

First Wind, which already operates the Kaheawa Wind Power station on Maui, has been wooing activist and community groups on Molokai to back their proposed wind farm since 2006. In fact, First Wind went so far as to offer a $50 million pledge in November 2007 to the Molokai Community Services Council’s Ho’i I Ka Pono campaign to purchase the 60,000 plus acres owned by Molokai Ranch Ltd.

Last March, a number of community organizations met at the Molokai Community Services Center and voted overwhelmingly to support First Wind’s project.

Castle & Cooke has been looking to build a wind farm since 2006. Though the company largely owns Lanai and can build the farm if it wishes, the project has engendered some resistance from residents.

Ron McOmber, a member of Lanaians for Sensible Growth, is a vocal critic of Castle & Cooke and charges that the company has not provided residents with enough information about the wind farm project. He also noted that residents had concerns about access to acreage for hunting and fishing.

Castle & Cooke Hawaii President Harry Saunders told the Weekly that he and other company officials have talked to residents and attended a couple of community meetings to clearly lay out their plans for the wind farm. He also noted that residents will still have access to hunting grounds and beaches.

Saunders also pointed out that the company has a built a $19 million, 10-acre solar farm at Palawai Basin in south Lanai which was completed last December. The facility is composed of 7,400 solar panels and is slated to produce 1.2 megawatts of energy that can be fed into the island’s small grid.

McOmber is unimpressed with such reassurances and beneficence and argues that Castle & Cooke has hurt the economy of Lanai by shifting from agriculture to tourism and now to energy. “This is not a democracy” says McOmber. “Lanai people do not have a say-so in what happens in their life.”