Bankrolling Both Ends | Part 2

Bottom Line Up Front:

• Two laws signed in 2025 put the State of Hawaiʻi behind the payments owed under new power purchase agreements (Act 191) and opened HECO's grid to independent producers starting in 2027 (Act 258).

• Act 258 requires the Public Utilities Commission's wildfire liability cap rules to carry the Governor's approval. Green appointed the PUC chair in January 2026 and re-nominated a second commissioner. That is two of three seats. Green placed the wheeling bill on his intent-to-veto list, then signed it after the PUC said it would cancel a pending inquiry.

• A super PAC funded by the carpenters union and more than 250 contractors reported more than $12.46 million on hand and was on television for Derek Kawakami within a week of his entry into the lieutenant governor's race.

• Green's political consultant and his business partner each maxed out to Kawakami. Their third partner used to run the organization funding that super PAC.

Part one followed the money into the Governor's campaign account. A Honolulu banker with a seat on the board of a Japanese megabank introduced Green to JERA. Green signed a Strategic Partnering Agreement in Tokyo in October 2025. JERA has now filed notice seeking approval for a $2 billion LNG plant on Oʻahu with no competitive bidding, justified in part by a savings figure the state itself withdrew. JERA employees, construction trades, Hawaiian Electric executives and Central Pacific Bank officers all appear among the Governor's donors.

Governor Green is running for reelection against three Democratic challengers who have reported raising nothing at all. His campaign filed a disclosure on July 6 showing $2,015,884.94 in the bank. That race was decided before ballots went out. The lieutenant governor's race has been poured into by some of the same individuals and entities.

The Two Laws

Two statutes signed in 2025 made a $2 billion foreign-owned power project viable in Hawaiʻi. Neither one mentions JERA.

Act 191, SLH 2025 requires the Department of Budget and Finance to enter into step-in agreements for payment obligations under certain power purchase agreements. It establishes the Power Purchase Costs Trust Fund, gives independent power producers a beneficial interest in the collected revenues, and appoints the electric utility as the department's billing, collection and payment agent. Payment by the department begins no later than two days after it notifies the utility.

After Lahaina, the obstacle to new generation in Hawaiʻi was the credit worthiness of the only buyer. Act 191 substitutes the state's balance sheet for that buyer's. Budget and Finance is an executive department and its director serves at the Governor's pleasure.

Act 258, SLH 2025 authorized electric utilities to securitize up to $500 million in infrastructure resilience costs. It required the PUC to open a rulemaking setting an aggregate cap on utility liability for economic damages from a covered catastrophic wildfire. Starting in 2027, HECO must let independent producers use its grid to deliver power directly to customers for a fee.

An unbounded wildfire exposure on the incumbent utility prices every counterparty contract on the islands. Cap it and the market becomes underwritable, including for a producer who never touches a transmission line. 

The wheeling provision explains JERA's posture. A producer that can sell across HECO's wires directly to customers does not need HECO to agree to buy anything. That is the context for the company's June 2026 move toward owning its own generating entity.

Both statutes open with the same legislative finding, close to word for word: that it is imperative to enable development of affordable clean energy resources, that generating units are being retired, and that replacement resources are urgently needed. They moved through one session and read as one instrument.

Bankrolling Both Ends

The commission's liability cap rules are subject to the Governor's approval. The PUC is a quasi-judicial body. Its rules do not ordinarily route through the fifth floor for a signature, but this one does by statute.

Green has already demonstrated what that leverage looks like in operation. He placed SB 897 on his intent-to-veto list, citing the commission's pending inquiry into wheeling between government entities. He signed the bill after the PUC said it would cancel that inquiry. A docket at an independent commission was disposed of in the course of a veto negotiation, and it was reported as a routine detail of the signing.

The body that will rule on JERA's application has three seats. Green appointed Chair Jon Itomura on January 14, 2026, for a term running to 2032. Commissioner Colin Yost was first appointed by Governor Ige, then re-nominated by Green and confirmed to a term ending in 2030. Commissioner Naomi Kuwaye is the only one still serving the term Ige gave her. Two of the three hold their current seats because Green put them there.

The Governor signs the statutes that set the terms of entry. He approves the rules that cap the liability those terms depend on, and appoints the majority of the panel that rules on the application. Bankrolling both ends of that arrangement costs a fraction of what the arrangement is worth.

The Committee

Pacific Resource Partnership is a joint venture of the carpenters union and more than 250 contractors. It funds a super PAC that reported more than $12.46 million on hand entering this year. Within a week of Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami entering the race, that committee was on television for him. Kawakami has raised $578,690 this cycle. Representative Della Au Belatti has raised $88,517, and $50,000 of that is a loan she made to herself.

Independent expenditure committees operate under no contribution limits. They accept unlimited sums from unions, corporations and other organizations, then spend that money on advertising so long as they avoid formal coordination with the candidate. 

On the energy deal now before regulators, Kawakami told Civil Beat that LNG could serve as a temporary bridge away from imported oil. 

The Governor's Preference

Green has issued no endorsement. On July 21 he went on Hawaii News Now and made his preference known anyway, calling Kawakami a very good candidate.

He was less generous about Belatti. Green asserts that any partner he has needs to be ready to work with him. He noted that she had described herself as a watchdog on him, then asked, "watch what?" A governor expressing doubt about the one candidate promising oversight tells voters something useful about what he expects from his administration.

Belatti answered the next day. She said she worries about working people being drowned out by interest groups supported by dark money. Hawaii News Now noted that she was referring to the PRP-operated committee spending on behalf of both Green and Kawakami.

The Consultants

Green's own political consultant, Andy Winer, has given Kawakami the $6,000 maximum. So has Jesse McCollum, his partner at the Wayfinder Group.

The two co-founded the lobbying firm in December 2025 with John White, who previously led Pacific Resource Partnership. Asked at launch to name the firm's clients, Winer said they were still working on that. Winer spent six years as chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz before leaving for Strategies 360, a firm Civil Beat has described as diminished since its bankruptcy filing. He has since played a lead role in advising Green.

The governor's consultant maxes out to the candidate the governor declines to formally endorse. That consultant's business partner does the same. Their third partner previously ran the union and contractor organization whose committee is buying advertising.

Both Sides of the Ledger

When Civil Beat reviewed his contributions in March, the money had mostly arrived in August and September 2024, when he was preparing to run for Ron Kouchi's state Senate seat. His largest donors gave $4,000, the ceiling for a legislative race. The lieutenant governor ceiling is $6,000. Civil Beat characterized the Senate declaration as a placeholder until he announced for lieutenant governor. He reported $296,985 raised for the period and $256,333 on hand.

The Resort Group, master developer of the Princeville Resort, appears through Jeffrey Stone, Chynna Stone, Kendall Kim and H. Burkley Showe. Developer Stanford Carr and his wife Kathy gave $2,500 each. Eleven senior employees of the architecture and engineering firm Bowers & Kubota gave $10,000 collectively. Shioi Construction's chairman gave $2,500. Highridge Costa's Mohannad Mohanna and Michael Costa gave $2,500 each. Kobayashi Group principals gave $4,000 among them. Ironworkers Local 625, the Central Pacific Bank State Political Action Committee and the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters are all on the list.

The carpenters were also, formally, undecided. Asked in March, the union's political director said it had taken no position on the lieutenant governor's race. PRP's Andrew Pereira declined to discuss Kawakami's future and said the organization wanted a candidate with honesty, integrity and a record of public service.

However, the committee did not wait for an official position. For a Better Tomorrow entered the year with $12.46 million on hand and had put about $75,000 into television by April 1, plus an undisclosed sum for producing the spot, reaching close to $200,000 by April 20.

Belatti has raised $88,517 and $50,000 of it is her own loan, leaving $38,517 from other people. Winer and McCollum gave Kawakami $12,000 between them. Her entire filing is under one percent of what the committee held in January.

The Filings

Three names in this story appear in the Hawaiʻi State Ethics Commission's public lobbyist registry. JERA Americas is represented by Blake Koshiro through Capitol Consultants of Hawaii, covering the full period from the Tokyo signing through the PUC filing. Pacific Resource Partnership registered Nathaniel Kinney and Andrew Pereira.

What Voters Are Being Asked to Accept

• A $2 billion project with no competitive bidding.

• A state guarantee of the payment obligations, enacted before the project reached the commission.

• A liability cap the Governor personally signs off on.

• A regulatory panel he seated.

• A savings figure the state itself withdrew.

• An advisor with a foreign bank board seat and no disclosure obligation.

• A statewide race shaped in large part by a committee funded by the people who would benefit the most from the project.

Ballots are out. Read the candidates' filings carefully before voting.