EPA Rejects Hawaiʻi Plan to Close 2 Oil Units by 2028 — Hawaii News
hawaii news: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency partially denied Hawaiʻi’s 2024 Regional Haze State Implementation Plan on Friday, dropping the state’s long-term strategy to shut down at least two Hawaiian Electric Co. oil-fired generating units by 2028. The decision affects the plan tied to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island and Haleakalā National Park on Maui.
The EPA said the planned closures were “unconsented” and said they could “violate the Takings Clause of the U.S. Constitution for the taking of private property without just compensation.” It also said the shutdowns could make Hawaiʻi’s grid less reliable.
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes and Haleakalā
The haze plan was built around improving visibility at two Class I areas under the Clean Air Act: Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and Haleakalā National Park. Those parks sit at the center of the state’s long-running effort to cut haze and reduce fine particulates and other man-made pollutants.
The rejected shutdown strategy targeted units at the Kanoelehua-Hill and Kahului power plants. The Kahului unit was commissioned in 1948. By removing that long-term path from the plan, the EPA left Hawaiʻi without the closure schedule the state had written into its haze strategy.
HECO’s Retirement Plan
Mike DeCaprio, vice president of power supply at HECO, said the company still plans to retire the aging plants. He said more biofuel plants, solar farms and battery storage have to come online first if the units are to retire by the end of 2028.
“We felt that having a contingency to run these units longer if needed was in our interest, and in our customers’ interest, so that we don’t end up in a grid reliability issue,” DeCaprio said. He added, “Reliability on an island grid is a really tough issue, right? They’re very small grids. With size comes stability, and they don’t have size.”
Earthjustice Response
Isaac Moriwake, managing attorney of Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific office, said, “This is one of the biggest bombs to drop in Hawaiʻi so far from the EPA.” Earthjustice said the decision will harm Hawaiʻi communities and result in dirtier air in the parks.
The agency’s action leaves the state’s haze plan partly intact, but it removes the closure strategy that tied air-quality goals to the retirement of two oil-fired units. HECO still says it wants replacement generation and storage in place before those units come off the grid, while the EPA’s ruling gives the state a narrower path to pursue those cuts.
