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Maui%20County
The Maui 10
Who’s the county’s most powerful player?

by By Anthony Pignataro

July 27, 2006

RANK    PREVIOUS     COMPANY



    1                1                Maui Electric Co.



    2                3               Alexander & Baldwin



    3                2               Tesoro Hawai’i



    4                4               Monsanto Hawai’i



    5                6               Maui Land & Pineapple Co.



    6                5               Dowling Co.



    7                7               Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation



    8                8               Makena Resort



    9                9               Wailuku Water Co.



   10              10              Hawaiian Telcom







Well, Maui Electric Company finally started drawing juice from the big windmill farm overlooking Ukumehame. That’s an additional 30 megawatts of energy—enough for 11,000 homes! And there’s no question that MECO wields considerable authority—clean energy is nice and all, but have you noticed how ugly those windmills are, all perched in a line up on the mountain ridge? A weak company could never have pushed that through. And both A&B and Maui Land rise a notch this week on news from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources that the companies’ ancient, earthen dams located all over Maui aren’t in any immediate danger of collapse. Many of the dams are listed as “high hazard,” but the state says no one should worry about walls of water headed into the living rooms right now. Then again, we’re not exactly in the middle of a rainy season right now… MTW