The clean-up process from the August wildfire is underway. The Environmental Protection Agency is completing the first phase in identifying and removing potentially hazardous materials such as paints, batteries, and electronics from the burned structures. We understand that eighty percent of this work has been completed as of late October. Prior to and after each day’s work, a Hawaiian pule (prayer) is conducted in the Hawaiian language by the clean-up teams. These pules are performed to both keep the clean-up teams safe and allow them to leave behind any negative energy or bad feelings accumulated in their work. Most importantly, the pules serve to honor the 99 people who lost their lives in the fire. Read More...

It has been a heartbreaking time in Hawaii with the tragic loss of lives, homes, and businesses on Maui due to the recent wild- fires. This tragedy has impacted so many of our fellow citizens in ways never before maginable. The fact that Hawaii is an island state more than two thousand miles from the mainland only compounds the impact of this disaster. We are immensely grateful for the outpouring of support from the communities of Maui, Hawaii’s other islands, and the remainder of the United States. Read More...

Hawaii, more than any other state, is largely dependent upon the visitor industry to support the local economy. The adverse impact of having virtually no visitors to the islands because of a series of lockdowns during the pandemic left an indelible impression onHawaii Energy Marketer Association (HEMA) member companies. While the economy seemed to be improving with pent-up demand for travel to Hawaii, we remain cautious. Travelers from the continental U.S. may be waning and we are still waiting for visitors from Japan to return to pre-pandemic levels. Read More...

At the time of writing this article, Hawaii’s legislative session will be ap- proximately a month away from wrapping up. This session has been characterized by drama of every kind. Residents and businesses got a front row seat to see how our legislature operates. News articles have called out bullying tactics by certain legislators and how their theatrics have gotten in the way of sound policymaking. The aloha spirit has become elusive in the State Capitol building. Read More...

Following Hawaii’s November 8 General Election there will be a new administration that will be sworn into office on December 5. HEMA members have developed a good rapport with frontrunners Lt. Gov. Josh Green and former House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke, who are likely to be elected Governor and Lt. Governor, respectively. There will likely be newly appointed cabinet members with the new administration, which could put new faces in Hawaii’s government posts impacting our industry. Read More...

In Hawaii’s primary election held on August 13, there were contentious races for governor, lieutenant governor and numerous seats in Hawaii's state legislature. Also, on the line were seats for a U.S. senator, both Hawaii congres- sional seats, and council races in every county, including the mayors of Kauai and Maui. Read More...

Hawaii Energy Marketers Association (HEMA) was diligently tracking a number of legislative bills that would potentially impact our member companies. Under a bill relating to youth vaping, the State Senate approved a bill prohibiting the sale or distribution of all flavored tobacco products, includ- ing products with menthol in Hawaii, effective July 1, 2022. The bill would greatly impact sales to adults at our retail stores, which we believe is a consti- tutional overreach. Our concern is that this will generate a demand for a black- market sale of illegal and possibly dangerous, unregulated products. Read More...

Hawaii’s energy industry is keeping a watchful eye on global events unfolding as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while also contending with threats right in the Aloha State. Read More...

The pandemic remains a top-of-mind issue for the Aloha State, nearly two years since it started. This past summer, there were promising signs Hawaii was on its way to economic recovery. As with other states across the nation, Hawaii residents were offered numerous incentives to be fully vaccinated. Read More...

I’m pleased to announce that Eric Wright of Par Hawaii LLC, has assumed leadership of HPMA as of July 1st. I look forward to working with Eric, and to an exciting year ahead. A big, but somewhat belated, welcome to Jon Mauer and Al Chee (IES Retail LLC) who joined the HPMA board earlier in the year. Finally, I would also like to recognize and thank our past President, Kimo Haynes (Hawaii Petroleum LLC) for his years of dedicated leadership and service to the Association. Read More...

Great news! We are slowly getting back to normal. Two weeks after the CDC updated its travel guidance to allow fully vaccinated travelers (after the 14-day waiting period) to fly without getting tested for COVID-19 or self-quarantining, Governor Ige announced that beginning May 11, 2021, fully vaccinated passengers would be allowed to fly inter-island between the Hawaiian Islands without pre-testing or quarantining. Unfortunately, only those vaccinated within Hawaii will qualify for the "vaccination passport" until the kinks are worked out. This is strictly a pilot program as Hawaii also announced that vaccinated trans-Pacific travelers will follow sometime in the Summer, and vaccinated international travelers will follow in the Fall, when herd immunity is expected. At this date, unvaccinated children over 5 and under 16 will still need to pre-test in order to travel. For now, the pre-travel testing rules and quarantine rules (without the pre-test) remain in effect for all trans-Pacific travelers. Read More...

As we head into 2021, there is growing optimism that the Hawaii economy will recover if we can continue to contain COVID-19 in Hawaii. So far, the state has administered roughly 137,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and expects to reach 250,000 doses by mid-February. I look forward to the day that vaccinated travelers will be able to fly freely without a negative pre-test. Read More...

It is indeed an honor to be writing my first Hawaii state report as the new Executive Director of HPMA! After 21 years with Aloha Petroleum, I’m now officially retired from the company. I look forward to working with HPMA President Kimo Haynes, the executive committee and the entire HPMA board, WPMA CEO Gene Inglesby and the hard-working WPMA staff, and all the great WPMA state executives! I’m especially humbled by the opportunity to join this elite group of state executives — I know I’ve got a lot to learn, but I’m comforted to know that I’ve got such collaborative and seasoned leaders to learn from. Read More...

On June 22nd, the legislature reconvened to finish the state’s business after being suspended in March due to COVID-19. As a result of the pandemic, the legislative priorities at the beginning of the session; employment practices, minimum wage increases, tobacco restrictions, and renewable energy mandates, had changed considerably, and the legislature’s focused was on the State's budget, COVID-19, and police reform. When the session concluded on July 10th, a total of 82 bills were sent to the governor for signature. Governor Ige has until September 15, 2020 to decide to sign or veto bills. Only two of the 40+ bills that HPMA was monitoring at the beginning of the session were included on this list. Read More...

2020 started off with a bang as the 31st Hawaii legislature opened with the House, Senate, and administration unveiling a joint package of economic bills to benefit Hawaii's working families. The bills focused on critical economic issues including affordable housing, childcare, and reducing poverty to make life better for Hawaii residents. In addition to over 2,800 bills that were carried over from the previous year's session, the legislature introduced another 2,400 new bills in 2020. Needless to say, our elected officials had a busy session. Read More...

The 9th annual HPMA golf tournament was held on October 14, 2019 at the Oahu Country Club. The weather was excellent, food and drinks were plentiful, and golf was, well, let's just say it was played. As always, it was a great opportunity for HMPA members, business partners, and sponsors to interact in an informal setting. Read More...

Although the 2019 Hawaii legislative session officially adjourned on May 2, July 9 marked the date by when Governor David Ige needed to sign bills into law, veto bills, or allow bills to become law without his signature. It wasn’t until the governor vetoed bills that the House and Senate could decide whether or not to convene a special session to override any of the vetoed bills. Of the numerous anti-tobacco bills that were tracked by HPMA, S.B. 1405 was the lone measure that was enrolled to the governor. Read More...

The 30th Legislature of the State of Hawaii adjourned quietly on May 2nd. Following a 2018 legislative session that House and Senate leaders proclaimed as progressive and constructive, it was the Hawaii business community that came together this session to oppose legislation to increase the state minimum wage and other issues. Read More...

The 30th Hawaii Legislature opened to subdued fanfare in mid-January as lawmakers - many of them new to their roles - rolled up their sleeves to address the People's work. There are 51 seats in the state House of Representatives and 25 in the state Senate. Ten new House members and four new Senate members graced the floor of the Capitol on opening day - an 18 percent turnover from the November 2018 election. Read More...

Hawaii's Congressional delegation will have a different member after the general election. Incumbents U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono and U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard are expected to win their elections by comfortable margins. That leaves the District I seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, which Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa (D) vacated to run for Hawaii governor and lost to first-term Governor David Ige. That led to a seven-person field for Hanabusa’s seat on the Democratic ticket in the primary election, with veteran former Congressman Ed Case coming out on top. In the November 6 general election, Case will go up against four candidates representing the Green, Libertarian, Republican and Non-Partisan parties, and is expected to prevail. Read More...

As forecast in the last (Spring) issue of WPMA Magazine, Hawaii lawmakers introduced a slew of bills in the 2018 Legislature that convened on January 17. This being an election year, the number of bills furthering Hawaii's frenzied transformation towards becoming a clean energy economy was unusually high. Typically, lawmakers are reluctant to enact legislation that raises the cost of living for constituents during an election year, for fear of reprisal at the voting booth. However, the Hawaii Legislature was noticeably emboldened in introducing several bills that were intent on holding energy stakeholders' feet to the fire - particularly the state's key power utility - in attaining Hawaii's aspirational goal of 100% clean energy generation by the year 2045 Read More...

Any enthusiasm that organizers of the opening day festivities of the 29th Hawaii Legislature may have hoped for was overshadowed by fallout (pun intended) from the false ballistic missile alert on January 13. Floor speeches were kept brief, and entertainment was subdued in the wake of the fake alert that was heard around the world - and the black cloud under which embattled Hawaii Governor David Ige and Hawaii Emergency Management Agency officials were attempting to make sense of the incident. Read More...

Hawaii lawmakers are busy preparing legislation to introduce during the 2018 Legislature, set to open on January 17. HPMA expects there to be the usual litany of anti-fossil fuel bills. Last session, House Bill 1580 - a bill requiring that ground transportation in Hawaii be fueled by 100% clean energy by 2045 - made it to conference committee, but died when House and Senate conferees failed to reach consensus. The bill is expected to return in 2018. Read More...

I'm honored to be the incoming president of the Hawaii Petroleum Marketers Association. I would like to thank our outgoing president, Aloha Petroleum CEO Richard Parry, for his stewardship during the past two years, and for his friendship over the many years we've known each other. I would also like to thank the HPMA membership and the WPMA for your confidence in me to lead the Hawaii organization for the next two years. Read More...

As I write this, our annual Hawaii legislative session is about to come to a close. It's a 60 'working' days session starting in January and running through May. Our legislators are heavily weighted to the Democrat side of politics, with 70 of the 76 representatives and senators being Democrat. Needless to say, we are always a bit nervous when they are in session! Read More...

As we come into Spring, we enter into the last days of the Hawaii legislative 90 day session. So far the big issue for the legislature to address has been whether to increase taxes again to pay for construction of the Honolulu rail system - it has already more than doubled its price tag from $4.5 billion to almost $10 billion! There are a few bills that affect our business, including a proposal to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2019, then $22 per hour in 2022; bills to increase taxes on electronic cigarettes; and a bill to increase reporting to the state in emergency situations. Read More...

This is a great time of year, isn't it? The holidays are upon us, and state legislators - at least those in Hawaii are not in session.

Unfortunately the federal government is still making our lives difficult. There are many examples, from online gaming rules changes to electronic cigarette regulation, and from moves to change the obligated party under the Renewables Fuels Standards to attempts by the big banks and credit card companies to roll back progress on controlling excessive card fees. Read More...

Our legislature closed its 2016 session in May without doing too much damage to us, although they did pass one bill that we opposed. The bill prohibits the installation of new underground storage tanks within 100 yards of the shoreline, unless existing tanks are being replaced. It also requires that all fuel USTs within that 100 yards of the shoreline be removed by 2045. The stated justification is that rising sea levels brought on by global warming will inundate these tanks and risk "our aquifers, coastal water quality and marine ecosystems." Whether sea levels will actually rise to inundate the shoreline by 100 yards by that date doesn't appear to be important to the legislators. This won't really impact us for a while, of course, but it does illustrate the negative mindset of our politicians regarding our industry. Read More...

At this writing the Hawaii state legislature is still in session. Our legislators initially proposed a bill to eliminate fossil fuel for transportation in Hawaii by 2045. Eventually they decided that was not reasonable and that there should instead be a study of it; fortunately, that proposed study has also been killed.Read More...

We are in the midst of the 2016 legislative session and had hoped that this session would be a quiet one for us, but unfortunately our legislators have found new ways to frustrate us. Read More...

Officials of the State of Hawaii Department of Health (DOH), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and the Navy have agreed on a plan to upgrade the facility which includes twenty (20) underground storage tanks (USTs). After five months of review which includes changes based on public comments, the Administrative Order on Consent (AOC) was signed into effect on September 28, 2015 by the DOH, EPA, DLA and Navy. The tasks outlined in the AOC will also involve the Board of Water Supply (BWS) and the Department of Land and Natural Resources and also includes the installation of additional monitoring wells. The agreement provides a plan for immediate and long-term steps to minimize future leaks and threats to potable water. Read More...

Please welcome our new HPMA board: President Richard Parry of Aloha Petroleum Ltd in Honolulu, 1st Vice President Jim Yates of Mid Pac Petroleum LLC in Honolulu, 2nd Vice President Kimo Haynes of Hawaii Petroleum Inc in Kahului and I will now serve as the EMA Director. Read More...

Since 2006, the State of Hawaii has required that 80 percent of the gasoline sold be blended with 10 percent ethanol (E10). The goal was to encourage ethanol production in the state with some tax incentives for new ethanol plants built in Hawaii. None were ever built, so now the State is looking at repealing the ethanol requirement. SB 717 is moving through the state legislature, and could eliminate the E10 requirement. However, it is really up to the two refiners to decide the fate of ethanol in Hawaii. Read More...

HB 1486, Relating to the Hawaii State Fuel Tax: Changes the assessment of the state fuel tax from a specified cents per gallon to the greater of a specified cents per gallon or a specified percentage of the wholesale price per gallon to the retailer, subject to a minimum monetary amount of tax based upon the tax paid by certain retailers. Read More...

Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) has begun the process of selecting final candidates for a project to supply and transport 800,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) over a 15 year period beginning in late 2016 or early 2017. Currently, HECO relies on liquid petroleum fuels (low sulfur fuel oil) to generate electricity. In the near future, HECO believes a containerized LNG option will allow them to cost-effectively generate power until a bulk LNG terminal can be constructed. Read More...

Par Petroleum Corp. will pay $107 million to purchase Koko?oha Investments Inc., the parent company of Mid Pac Petroleum LLC, which owns 80 76-brand retail stations and four terminals in Hawaii. The sale was announced by Par Petroleum back in June and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014. Par Petroleum purchased the Hawaii assets of Tesoro last year. Read More...

The adjournment of the 2014 State Legislative Session is just around the corner, and we are currently tracking the following bills which could have an impact on the Hawaii petroleum industry if enacted into law:

SB 2609 increases the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour by January 2018. The bill also increases the tip credit to $0.75 by January 2016. However, begin- ning in January 2015, the combined amount a tipped employee receives in wages and tips must exceed the applicable minimum wage by at least seven dollars in order for an employer to apply the tip credit. - Read More...

Hawaii's minimum wage will probably be the leading issue in 2014. The State's minimum hourly wage is currently at $7.25 and has not been increased since 2007. 21 states have higher minimums than that of Hawaii, and the State of Washington has the highest minimum hourly wage at $9.32. Governor Neil Abercrombie and Senate President Donna Mercado Kim have made it a priority for 2014. - Read More...

Economic indicators were mostly positive in the 2nd quarter of 2013. Hawaii experienced increases in visitor arrivals, visitor expenditures, private building permits, government contracts awarded, wage and salary jobs and personal income. State general excise tax revenue, an indicator of current economic activity, increased by $52.9 million or 7.5% in the 2nd quarter of 2013 compared to the same period last year. Consumer prices in Honolulu increased 1.8% in the first half of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012. - Read More...

Par Petroleum Corp. will pay $107 million to purchase Koko?oha Investments Inc., the parent company of Mid Pac Petroleum LLC, which owns 80 76-brand retail stations and four terminals in Hawaii. The sale was announced by Par Petroleum back in June and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014. Par Petroleum purchased the Hawaii assets of Tesoro last year. Read More...