RANK   PREVIOUS   COMPANY



  

1                

2             

Maui Land & Pineapple Co.



  

2                

1             

Alexander & Baldwin

  

3                

4             

Tesoro Hawai`i



  

4                

3             

Dowling Co.

  

5                

5             

Weinberg Foundation

  

6                

6             

Hawaiian Telcom

  

7                

7             

Goodfellow Brothers

  

8                

9             

Maui Electric

  

9                

8             

Monsanto Hawai`i

 

10              

10            

Wailuku Water Co.





CARLITO’S WAY



They call it the “Public” Utilities Commission (PUC), but sometimes

you can’t help but think they’re more interested in protecting the

interests of private companies. Like the oil companies, for instance.

Tesoro Hawai`i moves up this week because PUC Chairman Carlito Caliboso

told the state Senate Energy Committee he was having trouble

implementing the new law requiring oil companies to tell consumers how

they set gasoline prices. The reason for all the trouble? Caliboso’s

desire to “maintain confidentiality for the parties providing the

information,” according the Apr. 18 Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Heaven forbid if the oil industry should have to allow their

super-secret pricing schemes to fall into the hands of the wrong

people—and by “wrong people,” I really mean “people.”





WHAT’S THE LIPOA POINT?



Gotta love the Maui Land & Pineapple Company. No, I’m serious:

you must love them. Right now! I kid, I kid. Seriously folks, have you

been following this whole Honolua Bay/Lipoa Point thing? A couple

months ago the company floats this idea—it’s not even a plan,

really—that they want to build 40 estates and an 18-hole golf course on

Lipoa Point overlooking the bay, and practically the entire island is

outraged. And rightfully so—Honolua Bay is a gorgeous place, regardless

of whether you’re a surfer, and the idea of urban run-off getting

dumped into the bay is too horrible to contemplate. Anyway, opposition

to any development at the point has gotten so bad that on Apr. 20

County Councilmember Jo Anne Johnson proposed buying the property from

ML&P, and even offered to set aside $1 million to show the company

they were serious. That a boatload of Save Honolua activists filled the

entire council chamber gallery as Johnson spoke shows that ML&P is

truly the force in the county to be reckoned with. MTW