The Legitimate Government in Hawaii Series: Hawaiian Electric Company - Conspirators Documented
Review by Amelia Gora (2023)
How Hawaiian Electric Powered the Illegal Overthrow: Injustice from the Start
By Lauren Ballesteros-Watanabe | Reading time: 5 minutes
As they say, the past is always present , and that couldn’t be more true than with Hawaiian Electric. Since its inception, this company has been deeply intertwined with our economic, political, and social history. Though we can celebrate that Hawaiʻi received electricity before most of the world, the islands also got a profit-driven company that carries massive institutional power along with it.
It began in 1881, when King Kalākaua, with a fascination for technology and spreading Hawaiian culture throughout the world took a global tour. When he arrived in Paris, the International Exposition of Electricity was showcasing the latest advancements in electrical technology of which he was eager to learn more. He met Thomas Edison himself soon after in Edison’s New York City office. The king and the inventor discussed not only the technicalities of electric lights but also the business of selling power. From that meeting came a whirlwind of efforts to successfully develop and bring electricity to the Hawaiian Islands.
July 21, 1886, a Honolulu-based insurance executive with mainland connections, Charles Otto Berger, organized a demonstration of electric lights at Iolani Palace, sparking investments in innovative technology and carving a path for a new enterprise. By the year’s end, King Kalākaua and a handful of key government officials went up Nuʻuanu Valley to test whether streamwater could generate electricity.
By March 1888, Princess Kaʻiulani used the hydropower to light electric street lamps in Honolulu. Given Hawaiian Electric’s long history of dependence on imported fossil fuels, it’s worth noting that the first illumination of a public space in Hawaiʻi’s largest city came from a renewable source.
The monarchy’s success in bringing power to their kingdom was met with equal ambition from outside. At the same time of electrification of the islands, the seeds of revolution were being planted, largely by wealthy businessmen who sought to strip powers from the constitutional monarch to more freely expand their own interests.
What is most critical at this point in our local history is that the creation of Hawaiian Electric coincided with the last days of the ruling royals. As the following timeline follows shows, it was far from coincidental.
1887: A voluntary militia of white, including William Hall, organize an armed revolt known as the Bayonet Constitution. King Kalākaua was forced into signing a document requiring cabinet changes that appointed some of the militia members, as well as mandating substantial land ownership to vote. The overall impact marked a shift in the balance of electoral power away from Native Hawaiians and toward the white elite.
1891: The same year King Kalākaua died, the Hawaiian Electric Company was incorporated. Hawaiian Electric grew out of a partnership of four men, including William Hall, the scion of a prominent missionary-turned-merchant family. The company installed lights for free and customers paid for the electricity on a per-lamp basis. In the beginning, it cost 1 cent per light per hour, but Hawaiian Electric realized it was losing money and quickly raised the rates.
Mid 1891: William Hall became the first president of Hawaiian Electric Company, and was, by his own account, deeply involved in the armed revolt that gutted the monarchy.
January 1893: Queen Liliuokalani, signed a law passed by the Legislative Assembly that gave the government the power to sell an exclusive 10-year franchise to a company to provide electric light and power in Honolulu. It came with regulations, including limiting how much the winning bidder could charge and requirements to be audited by authorities.
Two days after the utility deal was announced, the Queen declared that she had written a new constitution for Hawaiʻi that would restore many voting rights for Native Hawaiians and re-energize the power of the throne.
Three days after that, a small group of wealthy, and overwhelmingly white, businessmen — including three of Hawaiian Electric’s five leaders — responded by overthrowing the royal family and declaring martial law to consolidate their power. William Hall, also a quartermaster in the National Guard of Hawaiʻi, whose role was in part to ensure martial law was maintained. When the time came to bid for the 10-year franchise to provide electricity in Honolulu, there were no other bids than Hawaiian Electric Company.
Now here we are, over 125 years from its inception and Hawaiʻi is still heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels and residents pay amongst the highest electricity rates in the nation because of it.
So what is taking Hawaiian Electric so long? Theories and technical-issue-based excuses aside, profits are still in the driver’s seat for Hawaiian Electric—and that is what is at the foundation, slowing their transition.
How does a company formed in the 19th century become the leading light of 21st century utilities, running 100% clean renewable energy? Maybe it can’t. The current model of a monopolized, profit-driven corporation in control of our energy isn’t working now, and it's likely it will be even more unsuitable in the future.
The alternative? Place-based, community-owned power utilities, sovereign from Hawaiian Electric’s grid are possible and might just be the future. This is the vision we have for energy justice—communities decide and benefit from the energy they produce.
Hawaiian Electric’s actions show that they are more loyal to satisfying shareholders than giving affordable electricity rates to residents. And while we are stuck with high rates during economic turmoil, Hawaiian Electric is making huge profits. Instead of taking advantage of its economic standing and position as an essential service—Hawaiian Electric should use this as an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to its community. Energy justice in this moment means offering bill forgiveness to its customers that are unable to pay their bills due to COVID-19.
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aloha.
Reference:
The following article was prepared by the Sierra Club:
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