Help to protect Health and Safety
I’m posting this in support of the PunaPono Alliance. Please pass on to others
There are three BIG things happening this week concerning Geothermal in Puna.
Dominic Yagong – dyagong@co.hawaii.hi.us
Donald Ikeda – dikeda@co.hawaii.hi.us
J Yoshimoto – jyoshimoto@co.hawaii.hi.us
Dennis “Fresh” Onishi – donishi@co.hawaii.hi.us
Fred Blas – fblas@co.hawaii.hi.us
Brittany Smart – bsmart@co.hawaii.hi.us
Brenda Ford – bford@co.hawaii.hi.us
Angel Pilago – apilago@co.hawaii.hi.us
Pete Hoffmann – phoffmann@co.hawaii.hi.us
1. First is that the petition calling for the Hawaii County Council to, amongst other things, override Mayor Kenoi’s veto of Bills 256 and 257 has as I write this got 596 supporters, we’d love to see that reach the biggest number possible by Wedand ask that you sign if you haven’t already done so and encourage your family and friends to also sign it before its presented it at the meeting of the Hawaii County Council. The petition will read the Council before it is presented.
Please sign the petition here: http://www.change.org/petitions/hawaii-county-mayor-hawaii-county-council-protect-the-health-and-safety-of-the-people-from-geothermal-development
2. If you’ve always wanted to have some burning questions answered by HELCOabout the grid, geothermal, solar, wind or whatever, Tuesday evening at 6pm HELCO President Jay Ignacio will address your electricity concerns when he speaks before the Rotary Club of Pahoa Sunset at the Akebono Theatre in Pahoa. Questons about electricity bills and renewable/sustainable energy will be entertained.
3. We need a huge turnout at the Hawaii County Council meeting this Wed in Hilo – we need lots of people to testify, and we need more people to show support by being there throughout the day, even if you can only come for an hour, it will make a difference. The County Council will at this meeting vote whether to override the Mayors veto of these two bills. The meeting will start at 8am.
The Mayor has asked that the pro veto group get employees and nearby residents to come out and testify in support his veto, with the primary emphasis that there are no health issues that exist, and that the plant has been operating safely, hence no reason for a buffer zone. (Their words not ours!?
Please come to Hilo even if you don’t want to give testimony, because we need numbers!
OR give testimony in person in Pahoa, at Fred Blas’ office next to the Medical center in the Malama marketplace, the Council office in Waimea and the Council office in Kona. Your verbal testimony can also be emailed to council members at the email addresses below.
If you need help with preparing your testimony, call 339 4344.
To submit written testimony by e-mail, send it to counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us by 8am Tuesday July 31, you can also e-mail each council member individually:
Dominic Yagong – dyagong@co.hawaii.hi.us
Donald Ikeda – dikeda@co.hawaii.hi.us
J Yoshimoto – jyoshimoto@co.hawaii.hi.us
Dennis “Fresh” Onishi – donishi@co.hawaii.hi.us
Fred Blas – fblas@co.hawaii.hi.us
Brittany Smart – bsmart@co.hawaii.hi.us
Brenda Ford – bford@co.hawaii.hi.us
Angel Pilago – apilago@co.hawaii.hi.us
Pete Hoffmann – phoffmann@co.hawaii.hi.us
When you come to the council meeting, you can read the testimony you submitted by email. If you have not emailed the testimony, they ask that you bring 14 copies of it and give it to the clerk that day.
As part of our outreach Puna Pono Alliance is planning a regular newsletter and wishes to reach out to people directly with this newsletter rather than asking people to forward emails to their friends forever. To do this we need your help so we are requesting that you broadcast this email to your friends throughout the islands of Hawaii who may want to find out how this may affect them in the future.
This is now an important topic for all of Hawaii, no just Puna. Geothermal is now firmly on the agenda for all of Hawaii as stated by the Dr Don Thomas, geologist for PGV and Professor of Geology at the University of Hawaii in Hilo, at the community meeting in Leilani on Tuesday evening this week. He is proud to be heading the study of all of the Hawaiian Islands to seek out new Geothermal areas to put these toxic power plants.
If you do not want Geothermal activities to increase in Puna or indeed where ever you live in Hawaii, you will want to keep up with and support the efforts of the Puna Pono Alliance.
All those who are concerned about this and wish to receive this newsletter please email Punapono@gmail.com with your name, phone number and email address and we will add you to the list. If you received this email directly from Punapono@gmail.com, you are on the list already, if you are receiving it through a friend, we’d love to put you on the list.
Who are Puna Pono Alliance….We are a group of individual people (with busy lives like you and your neighbor), who have seen that unless Geothermal is something we want in our neighborhood, we had better stand up and be counted, or we may as well give up and move out now while our properties still have some value. For lots of reasons, the same reasons most of us value being here, we feel passionately that our loved ones, homes and farms are worth stand up for now. Not next year but now, because deals are being done as I write this and tomorrow is simply too late! Will you stand up too?
If you wish to unsubscribe from the Puna Pono Newsletter list please email Punapono@gmail.com with Un-subscribe in the subject line.
