Tam Hunt - PGV Statement

[leilanidude]

He may have just cooked his campaign to a loss.

This is my DRAFT statement on PGV after significant dialogue with the community and various people who have followed this plant and its issues for many years. 

Please let me know your thoughts in terms of errors, oversights, etc. 

I'm genuinely interested in your feedback. 

Here's the quick summary:
▪ We need to hold PGV accountable — after decades of it getting a free pass, time and time again.
▪ This is a pocketbook issue, not just a Puna issue. You do not have to live within a mile of the plant to pay for it. Every household on this island pays for PGV on its electric bill — about 15–20¢ per kilowatt-hour all-in, against 8–9¢ for the solar-plus-storage we should be building instead.
▪ Thirty years and about $100,000 in fines. A $23,700 state penalty and a $76,500 federal one — at a plant that will collect $28.2 million a year through 2052. That is not accountability. It is a rounding error.
▪ A higher bar. PGV will probably serve our grid for many more years. It must finally meet binding emissions limits, real-time public monitoring, funded enforcement, host-community authority, and aquifer protection.
▪ No further expansion, and no new drilling in Lava Zone 1. Beyond the repower regulators have already approved, new generation on this island should be solar, wind, and storage — cheaper, safer, cleaner, and not sitting on an active rift zone.
▪ Stop spending public money to prove the resource. $15 million requested for exploration on DHHL lands, and $40–50 million in proposed test drilling, are dollars that could go to Hawaiian homestead allocations, roads, and classrooms.

[Punatang]

That would be a shame.  Personally, I'm so intrigued by the strange bed full of fellows and fellets supporting him - especially here in these hallowed pixels.  You have clear decentralization tendencies, a self described "libertarian", and so much more to love. 

Marco Manglesdorf is his advisor on energy policy.  If you want LNG, you hire Mark "Free Gas" Glick.  If you want solar, you hire the head of Provision Solar.  Manglesdorf is a self described "Solar Energy Crusader since 1978".  Of course he doesn't love PGV.

Myman! has made some astute observations about politics in Hawaii, and leadership in general, that boil down to this.  Pacing. You have to have the group running beside you before you can veer off and lead them in a new direction.  The guy has to collect together enough votes first.

I submit the following for your pleasure.  Please note that below, he describes "Puna" and not "Punaweb".  To hear Tam tell it, the consensus reality of the louder voices here on PW is not the objective reality on the ground.  My, what fun.  Pass the popcorn, please.


"The big political fight of the modern era has always been about the size and role of government. The mainstream left still thinks government should be big and active. The mainstream right thinks government should be small and unobtrusive. Both, as far as I can tell, are wrong in important ways and right in important ways. Neither captures what Puna actually believes.
Left libertarianism starts somewhere different. It starts with Oliver Wendell Holmes’s old line: “The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.” Maximum freedom for the individual, constrained only by the ability of others to enjoy their freedoms. That is the libertarian half.
The left half is the recognition that concentrated power — whether it comes from government, corporations, or any entrenched institution — tends to swing its fist into other people’s noses too often. So power should be devolved to the lowest level appropriate, not concentrated at the top."

https://tamhunt.medium.com/im-running-fo...b8b3feaa01

Go Tam!

[MyManao]

He may have just cooked his campaign to a loss..

Tam Hunt on Medium... 

https://tamhunt.medium.com

Where you can find links to all his musings.

And now that I have read through them, and realize he has an AI buddy, and see how he responds to pushback in comments from readers, I suspect Dude is right.. he's going to burn up long before he ever gets near the state capital. Or, if he does get the vote.. he'll get put in his place real quick and be useless.

Interesting aside.. he reminds me of Damon Tucker.. a perpetual motion energizer bunny. I doubt any seasoned politician will have much patience with him, and hope, for Puna's sake, he burns out before he makes landfall and embarrasses himself, and his constituents..

[HiloJulie]

While my fellow PunaWeb Chief Naysayers of naysaying all think Tam has already been put out to pasture, I offer my opinion that he has just begun to light a fire under Puna.

First, his stance on PGV, regardless of the handful of those in Puna who are PRO Geothermal, he is making his case to the constituency he needs to get elected. To think the vast majority of those who will elect Puna's next Representative are PRO Geothermal shows a complete lack of understanding of that very constituency.

As for his stance as the Tangy Tang Tang points out about what Tam says about the size and role of government, well he is again spot on targeting the constituency he needs to get the votes. A good example, last week Hawaii County Police set up speed traps in Pahoa. Immediately the socials filled up with comments claiming "Police Corruption." Again, the vast majority of the voters Tam needs - think this way. To think otherwise, shows the ignorance of just what the constituency is.

So, what if he uses AI. It's not like he is writing an official report for UH. And excuse me Tang, but the real solar expert to hire is none other than Mr. Matthias Fripp. 

In conclusion, I'd have to say Tam is playing the perfect hand to get elected. But, having said that, the only real issue I see is that same very constituency Tam appears to be pandering too, might just be swayed by more and more promises of millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars being appropriated for more studies and useless construction of a never ever to be realistically built boat launch or an alternative route from Puna to Hilo.

But then again, you never know. If Tam loses, he could try playing the "rigged" election card.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

To hear Tam tell it, the consensus reality of the louder voices here on PW is not the objective reality on the ground. 

Question #1: Punatang, can you provide several examples of what the louder voices say vs the reality on the ground?

Question #2: is there a middle ground, a candidate who can get elected by Puna voters, but also navigate the Hawaii political system and accomplish something other than paying Oahu consultants for plans and studies of Puna infrastructure needs, while little is actually built?  That is, who will get money appropriated for Puna and spent in Puna?

[MyManao]

the socials filled up..

I don’t think measuring the size, or the intent, of any group by the loudest amongst them, is a good idea. 

The idea that "the socials filled up” means anymore than the unemployed whined about something is a dangerous assumption.

Those who voice themselves on the “socials” are not the bulk of the constituents, the folks that line 130 going to and from their jobs, and haven’t the time for the socials, are.

[Punatang]

It is a big tent people.  We welcome all Collective Decentralists.

Donate here:  https://secure.actblue.com/donate/tamhunt

   

[MyManao]

For the record, brother 'tang, howz the hunt for those 60 million missing ballots, or envelops, or whatever.. going?

Love the pic, btw. So with Chris Butler's endorsement... lol!

As Bobby D said..

The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town

[HiloJulie]

Those who voice themselves on the “socials” are not the bulk of the constituents, the folks that line 130 going to and from their jobs, and haven’t the time for the socials, are.

And, as I said, "...shows a complete lack of understanding of that very constituency."

And speaking of using AI, I guess its verboten for Tam to use AI to help him write his platforms etc., but we see the Tangy Tang Tang using AI to make a meme to Tam's campaign website using a picture of the now washed-up former darling of Hawaii. 

Again, "...shows a complete lack of understanding of that very constituency."

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

It is a big tent people.  We welcome all Collective Decentralists.

Tent 
Collection
Decentralized

Libertarian reality on the ground.

   

Here in LPP (Libertarian Paradise Park) you are free to live and build without rules, regulations, zoning, taxes, insurance, nothing but blue sky! And blue tarps for when it rains!  
Your freedom begins where my line of sight ends.  Otherwise my fist will reach any nose that’s in my business.