2015-01-08 Hearing Transcript-GAF Puna Pono Alliance

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Geothermal Resource Permit granting to the Intermediate Court of Appeals in Hawai‛i in the case of Medeiros. I am, as I said, representing myself here, just to provide information. A little bit of background here. As a, has been noted, the Pele Defense Fund and the Native Hawaiian community had been trying to get a study of this sort for many decades. I know Dr. Edelstein personally, and I’ve worked with him assessing psycho-social impacts of adverse events on other native and minority communities. Specifically, I worked with him on a study of the impact of the loss of irrigation water supply on an Indian reservation in Arizona—how that adversely affected culture, and how those psycho-social impacts on individuals adversely affected, not just their physical health, but—not just their mental health, but their physical health as well. Dr. Edelstein is extremely well qualified, and his book on stressed communities is used in university curricula around the country. I wanted to briefly address the merits of the proposal. It’s a community approved geothermal impact mitigation project as required by the rule, and it was recommended by the Adler report. I think the Mullen & Co. adverse recommendation should be rejected by the Planning Commission, and the Commission should fund the study. I note that a, an insurance claims adjuster is not the appropriate process for recommending this kind of study. And I see that my time is up, so I have a few more comments, but I’d be pleased to answer any questions you might have. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any questions? I have a question, Mr. Luebben. You know, you’re very familiar with Dr. Adler— LUEBBEN: I’m not familiar with Dr. Adler. I’ve not worked with Dr. Adler. We had a different mediator at the time back when we were doing Condition 51 on the GRP. MIYASATO: Okay, I guess, just my question is this, if you’re familiar with these reports, psycho-study reports, yeah? This two hundred, this amount that’s being requested, 293,000, is that about the amount that you would say a report— LUEBBEN: You know, I won’t represent that I have reviewed the budget. I was not involved in drafting the proposal or in constructing the budget for the proposal, and all I can say is Dr. Edelstein has been doing this work for quite some time. He’s a university professor. He does this sort of work all around the world, and I have to assume that his budget is reasonable. MIYASATO: Thank you. If they want—anyone else out there that would, wishes to testify on this? If not, I’ll take a motion to close the public testimony. IKEDA: So moved. HENKEL: Second. MIYASATO: All in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. 13 EXHIBIT D