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Hawaiian Electric Company\u02bbs M\u0101\u02bbalaea power plant. (Sept. 2022) PC: Wendy Osher<\/p>\n\nHawaiian Electric Company\u02bbs M\u0101\u02bbalaea power plant. (Sept. 2022) PC: Wendy Osher<\/p>\n
Attorney General Anne Lopez and a coalition of conservation and public health organizations have each filed separate legal challenges to a US Environmental Protection Agency decision that partially rejected Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s plan to curb pollution from power plants blamed for haze over Haleakal\u0101 National Park, including Hawaiian Electric Co.\u2019s Kahului and M\u0101\u02bbalaea generating stations on Maui.<\/p>\n
The state Department of Health identified the two Maui plants, along with two Hawaiian Electric plants on Hawai\u02bbi Island, as the leading human-caused sources of haze pollution affecting visibility at Haleakal\u0101 and Hawai\u02bbi Volcanoes national parks.<\/p>\n
The Clean Air Act requires states to submit Regional Haze State Implementation Plans every 10 years to reduce pollution that obscures views in national parks and wilderness areas. State officials say haze-forming pollutants have been linked to health and environmental harm, and the coalition\u2019s filing cited nearly 8,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that will continue entering the air around the plants without the state\u2019s plan in place, along with resulting fine particulate matter.<\/p>\n
Hawaiian Electric had proposed retiring older, inefficient oil-burning units at the Kahului and M\u0101\u02bbalaea plants rather than install pollution-control equipment. Responding to a Maui Now request for comment on Wednesday, Mike DeCaprio, the utility\u2019s vice president of power supply, said that installing controls on the aging units would have been prohibitively expensive and would have shown up in customers\u2019 bills.<\/p>\n
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Hawaiian Electric Vice President of Power Supply Mike DeCaprio. PC: HECO<\/p>\n
The utility\u2019s retirement plan was intended to keep costs down while maintaining reliable service, DiCaprio said. The company still intends to retire the units, but wants to wait until replacement power sources are online first, he said, noting that an island grid has no backup if the utility can\u2019t meet demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still committed to retiring these plants in a timeframe close to our original plans,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cOn an island, there\u2019s no backup if we can\u2019t meet demand. We\u2019re still committed to retiring these plants in a timeframe close to our original plans as new renewable projects come online.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeCaprio disputed the state\u2019s assessment that pollution controls were economically feasible, saying that conclusion assumed the units would keep running for another 30 years, which the company never intended. He put the cost of controls at $32 million for the Kahului plant, based on 2020 figures.<\/p>\n
Hawaiian Electric reversed its earlier commitment to the retirement dates after the EPA changed administrations in 2025, according to state officials.<\/p>\n
DeCaprio said the change in administration created uncertainty around utility-scale renewable projects that were expected to replace some of the retiring units\u2019 generating capacity. He also pointed to recurring reliability issues on Hawai\u02bbi Island as a separate reason the company wanted flexibility to keep some units running longer if needed. Given those concerns, DeCaprio said, Hawaiian Electric contacted the EPA to explain the situation and to reiterate that it still intended to retire the units \u2014 just not on a fixed timeline that didn\u2019t account for the delays.<\/p>\n
The Department of Health was copied on that correspondence but never responded or engaged with the company\u2019s concerns, DiCaprio said.<\/p>\n
According to the coalition, the utility notified EPA in an August 2025 letter \u2014 more than a year after the state finalized its plan \u2014 that it no longer supported the retirements, citing grid reliability concerns the coalition described as speculative. On May 29, the EPA issued a final rule partially disapproving Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n
DeCaprio also said regional haze rules are not health-based and apply solely to visibility in national parks, adding that visibility impacts from ongoing volcanic eruptions far exceed those linked to power plant emissions in the state. Generator emissions will decrease as more renewable energy comes online toward the state\u2019s 100% renewable portfolio standard, an effect he said the state\u2019s plan does not account for.<\/p>\n
State officials pushed back on the EPA\u2019s characterization of the utility\u2019s earlier commitment, saying the agency wrongly described the voluntary retirements as \u201cunconsented\u201d closures despite years of negotiation that led to those commitments being written into the state plan.<\/p>\n
Isaac Moriwake, managing attorney for Earthjustice\u2019s Mid-Pacific office, said in a statement that the EPA sided with Hawaiian Electric\u2019s request to unwind the pollution controls, which he said would leave Hawai\u02bbi ratepayers continuing to cover the cost of imported fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
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The summit of Haleakal\u0101. PC: Hawai\u02bbi Pacific Parks Association<\/p>\n
Haleakal\u0101 National Park drew more than 850,000 visitors in 2025, part of visitor spending the coalition said supports thousands of jobs statewide, and research cited in the coalition\u2019s filing shows park visitation can drop by as much as 8% when air quality declines.<\/p>\n
\u201cHawai\u02bbi will fight to protect our people and our environment,\u201d Kathleen Ho, the Department of Health\u2019s deputy director for environmental health, said in a statement, adding that the state\u2019s plan was tailored to Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s circumstances and developed over years of collaboration.<\/p>\n
Lopez said in a statement that Haleakal\u0101 and Hawai\u02bbi Volcanoes national parks hold cultural and environmental significance and are home to species found nowhere else, and that residents and visitors deserve the natural air quality and visibility the plan was meant to protect. The state is challenging the EPA\u2019s action because it conflicts with the goals of the regional haze plan and relies on what she called an unlawful reading of the Clean Air Act, she said.<\/p>\n