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<br /> <br />HENKEL: I have one more. <br /> <br />HEAUKULANI: Sure, certainly, and before Sarah tells me to tell you that you need to use your <br />microphone. <br /> <br />HENKEL: With the release of material from Puna Geothermal that happened during Tropical <br />Storm Iselle, there was a declaration of emergency I believe right after that. Does that allow for <br />the bypassing of some of the regulatory hurdles that we’re facing here? Isn’t that what the <br />emergency declaration is for? <br /> <br />KANUHA: Mr. Chairman? <br /> <br />HEAUKULANI: Director Kanuha. <br /> <br />KANUHA: Commissioner Henkel, can you restate your question again? I’m kind of getting <br />two, two different components here. You know, not necessarily what—I’m just saying. The <br />emergency declaration was— <br /> <br />HENKEL: —My main concern is that this is a time sensitive issue, and that a whole year has <br />gone by, and I’m, and I’m wondering if there is any way to expedite it. You know, I don’t <br />understand a lot of the legal issues, the procurement issues and stuff. I’m a, I’m a layman when <br />it comes to that, but I do know that, you know, there was a release of toxic material. I live five <br />miles away from geothermal, and during the tropical storm, I experienced it myself, and I was <br />wondering if since there was a declaration of emergency following that, if part of that declaration <br />of emergency doesn’t allow for the, you know, expediting these issues. <br /> <br />KANUHA: Okay, that’s, that’s the clarification I was looking for because that declaration of <br />emergency was for the storm. It wasn’t for the release. That’s my understanding. <br /> <br />HENKEL: Well, the release, the release was a result of the storm as far as I know. <br /> <br />BRILHANTE: You know, Commissioner Henkel, I’m going to have to say—what I would have <br />to do is I would have to review the specific language of the emergency declaration. My concern <br />would be when you get a declaration like that, the declaration is specific to the items that have <br />been exempted, and I know procurement is generally an item that’s exempted, but here we’re <br />running into two problems. <br /> <br />First, is not only, you know, the procurement requirements are one item that we’re discussing, <br />but the primary requirement is the requirement under the Hawaiʽi County Code regarding use of <br />the Geothermal Asset Funds and the procedures associated with that, that use or awarding of <br />those funds. And, I’m not sure whether that specific code section was exempted under the, the <br />emergency proclamation so that would be my concern. I don’t want to come here—my thought <br />process is that it wasn’t but, you know, what I’m, what I’m thinking, but I don’t want to say <br />specifically on the record, no it wasn’t without, you know, checking first. <br /> <br />6 <br />EXHIBIT E <br /> <br /> <br />