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Lawmakers voice concerns over electricity bills, corporate pay and customer costs during floor consideration
Summary
During consideration of multiple standing committee reports, several representatives opposed bills they said would shift costs to ratepayers and defended criticism of Hawaiian Electric’s executive compensation.
Several members of the House used the floor during standing committee report consideration to criticize bills they said would shift utility costs onto customers and to protest executive pay at Hawaiian Electric.
One member characterized a bill as reallocating "$1,500,000" of residents’ tax dollars to pay electric bills for low-income households rather than pursuing regulatory changes to allow for more competition; the speaker said, "I don't support that. I'm voting no."
Other representatives raised concerns that bills would "lead to increased electricity costs in our state" and objected to executive pay at Hawaiian Electric. A floor speaker referenced the company's executive compensation, saying, "the CEO of HECO gets paid $6,500,000," and argued it was inappropriate to shift costs to customers while corporate leaders receive high compensation.
Opponents framed their votes as protest and expressed concern that the bills left blank appropriations or otherwise exposed customers to higher rates. Supporters and the committee record are not quoted in detail in the excerpt; several members recorded "no vote" or "reservations" on related reports. The transcript does not include final roll-call tallies specific to these individual electricity-related measures in the provided excerpt, only recorded objections and a later voice vote on the package of reports.
