Geothermal

Puna Pono Alliance (PPA) just sent a newsletter, reposted below, calling for immediate community support and testimony on two issues this week. Please share this information, and testify in person or submit testimony by noon of the day prior to each meeting. Even if you read this too late to testify, it’s worth reading to stay up to date on what’s going on. Email counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov (one email for each agenda item) with your testimony, which could be as simple as “I support the Puna Pono Alliance position on Bill 77.” and “I support the Puna Pono Alliance position on Resolution 249-15.” ...

Some news and action items regarding the geothermal drilling: Night Drilling Greggor Ilagan has actually been convinced to draft and introduce two resolutions: Resolution 58-15 to ask PGV to comply with the law Resolution 59-15 to ask Corporation Counsel to have a judge decide whether PGV is subject to this law Please email or call the Hawai’i County council members to ask them to support both resolutions: valerie.poindexter@hawaiicounty.gov, aaron.chung@hawaiicounty.gov, dennis.onishi@hawaiicounty.gov, greggor.ilagan@hawaiicounty.gov, daniel.paleka@hawaiicounty.gov, maile.david@hawaiicounty.gov, dru.kanuha@hawaiicounty.gov, karen.eoff@hawaiicounty.gov, margaret.wille@hawaiicounty.gov You can also contact Gov. David Ige, contact form or 808-586-0034, and Mayor Billy Kenoi, cohmayor@co.hawaii.hi.us or 808-961-8211. ...

Puna Pono Alliance has launched a petition asking the governor of the state and the mayor of the county to enforce the night-time drilling ban against PGV. We, the people, haven’t had much success so far with asking those in power to do the right thing. But please take a moment to sign this while keeping in mind that more serious resistance may be necessary.

What: Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) community meeting When: January 19, @ 6:30pm. Where: Pahoa High School Cafeteria. Why: PGV plans to drill without following the county ordinance that prohibits drilling between 7 PM and 7 AM The county representatives for Puna are looking out for geothermal interests at the expense of community health. Following is an email alert from Bob Petricci of Puna Pono Alliance: Geothermal Update Drilling Alert PGV has joined forces with Puna Council reps Greggor Illigan and Danny Paleka to actively campaign against the night time drilling ban we enacted to protect our community from PGV’s previous impacts due to 20 years of poor drilling practices. ...

Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV), operator of the geothermal plant in lower Puna on Hawai’i island, plans to start drilling a new well as early as January 2015. The existing five wells have mysteriously dropped in electricity generation from 38 to 30 megawatts. The last well PGV drilled two years ago, at great expense to the sleep and health of neighbors, has never come online as it failed to find sufficient heat. In the past few years, the plant has released potentially deadly hydrogen sulfide on multiple occasions, with ongoing refusal by PGV or civil defense to put proper monitoring equipment and systems into place to protect nearby residents. ...

Passing this on from Puna Pono Alliance: This year’s geothermal legislation needs your help now, one last time. Please send an email (see below) and ask your friends to do the same. The immediate need for these emails ends this week (please do not send emails after April 26th.) Representatives Chris Lee and Cindy Evans along with their committees on Energy and Environmental Protection and Water and Land made appropriate changes to Senate Bill 2663 (now referred to as SB2663 SD2 HD2.) They not only cleaned up the Senate version of the bill, but they also provided for contested cases in geothermal permitting and a ban on fracking (with a sunset of 10 years.) Representative Sylvia Luke and her Finance committee then also approved the favorably amended legislation. ...