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The Maui 10
Who's the county's most powerful player?
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May 22, 2008 BIG OIL BOOST!
 | | RANK | PREVIOUS | COMPANY | | 1 | 1 | Monsanto Hawai`i | | 2 | 2 | Alexander & Baldwin | | 3 | 4 | Tesoro Hawai`i | | 4 | 3 | Weinberg Foundation | | 5 | 6 | Wailuku Water Co. | | 6 | 5 | Land & Pineapple Co. | | 7 | 7 | Dowling Co. | | 8 | 8 | Goodfellow Brothers | | 9 | 9 | Hawaiian Telcom | | 10 | 10 | Maui Electric Co. |
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Despite Tesoro's falling profits and steadily declining stock price, there's hope for the oil company that runs the largest gasoline refinery in Hawai`i. According to a May 9 Washington Post story, Big Oil is starting up "a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign" to convince people "that rising energy prices are not the producers' fault." The American Petroleum Institute wouldn't say how much they're spending on advertising, except that it would be "less than $100 million a year." Guess they don't want to go overboard, even though times are so tough that people are actually using the term "Big Oil" as if it were "a one-word epithet, said former Oklahoma senator Don Nickles, an energy lobbyist." See, there's nothing scary about Big Oil! They even employ unemployed former U.S. Senators! What's bad about that?
WAILUKU WATER EVERYWHERE
The May 11 Maui News reported that Wailuku Water Company wants to become a public utility. Who among us has enough to power to just ask to become a public utility? Well, the County of Maui opposes the request, and local residents don't seem too hot on the company either. According to Angie Hoffman, a Paia resident who attended the state Public Utility Commission's May 14 hearing on granting Wailuku Water permits, locals aren't big fans of the company. "About 45 people testified with only one in favor," Hoffman emailed me. "Many people wondered why Hawaiian families living in the area, who are supposed to be 'Kuleana users' and have grown Kalo in this valley for centuries, should have to pay Wailuku Water a single cent for this water that is rightfully theirs. Others wondered why Wailuku Water needs this water, since they are not growing sugar anymore." Anyway, normally I'd say the whole thing is a non-starter, but remember that Wailuku Water Co. president Avery Chumbley is a former state senator. They could easily get their way. MTW
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| Entertainment and lifestyle news for Maui, Hawaii and the surrounding Islands. Maui Time Weekly is Mauis only independent and locally owned newspaper.
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