HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-03 Kristina Anderson Support TestimonyFrom: Kristina Anderson
To: Planning WPC Testimony
Subject: SUPPORT Bill 170–NO data centers on Hawaii Island!
Date: Thursday, September 3, 2026 3:41:15 AM
My name is Kristina Anderson and I have been a resident of Captain Cook since 1992. I am writing in strong
support of Bill 170 and asking the Windward Planning Commission to recommend one additional strengthening change before sending it back to the County Council. ... The original Bill 170 language uses subjective phrases like "industrial-scale operation" and "beyond that typically accessory or incidental to office, commercial, or public institutional uses" that a well-resourced developer's attorney can argue around. The definition below replaces that subjectivity with objective physical criteria and a clear 20 megawatt threshold that cannot be disputed.
Cooling, power, and support infrastructure, including but not limited to servers, network equipment and appliances, telecommunications equipment, data storage systems, systems for monitoring and managing infrastructure performance, environmental controls, fire protection systems, security systems, electrical substations, generators, and redundant power supplies; and which requires or is designed to require 20 megawatts or more of electrical capacity at full build-out. This definition includes a single facility and any campus of multiple facilities on contiguous or adjacent parcels under common ownership or control whose combined electrical demand meets or exceeds 20 megawatts. This term includes facilities commonly described as large-scale, hyperscale, neocloud, and artificial intelligence data centers and colocation campuses. This term does not include telecommunications facilities regulated under Section 25-4-12, hospital or government data systems, university educational and research facilities, or business offices in which servers are incidental to the primary use."
I am a senior citizen on a fixed income and pay an enormous HELCO bill every month. I do not want to see our finite island resources going to large-scale data centers, or any data centers for that matter. I’m dead set against them!
Our island's closed water system, fossil-fuel dependent grid, and already strained infrastructure cannot support hyperscale data centers. Please recommend the strongest possible version of this bill to the County Council.
Mahalo for taking my testimony, Kristina Anderson