Billion-Dollar Math Error Blows Up Green Administration’s Fossil Gas Import Plan

Today, a legislative briefing before the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection, chaired by Representative Nicole Lowen, revealed a basic, fatal math error by the Green administration in its published study supporting its campaign to import liquified natural gas (LNG) to Hawai‘i.  An independent investigation presented at the hearing exposed that the study, which the Hawai‘i State Energy Office (HSEO) issued last year at a cost of almost $900,000, neglected to include the cost of the LNG fuel in its cost-benefit calculations. This oversight understated the cost of the project by at least $886,000,000, based on the gas prices quoted in the study. After correcting the error by including the missing LNG fuel costs, any claimed savings from LNG under the study are wiped out, and the LNG proposal actually increases costs for Hawai‘i consumers. 

“The State Energy Office is so high on fossil gas fumes, it missed a grade-school math error that made its wishes come true,” said Isaac Moriwake, Managing Attorney for Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific Office. “This billion dollar blunder would’ve stuck Hawaiʻi’s consumers with these extra costs for generations, while JERA and its Hawaiʻi collaborators profited off of prolonging our dependence on imported fossil fuels.” 

During the briefing, Dr. Matthias Fripp, Director of Global Policy Research with the clean energy think tank Energy Innovation and a former University of Hawai‘i professor, explained that after the Green administration announced its “Strategic Partnering Agreement” with JERA, Japan’s largest power generation company, in October 2025, he asked HSEO for the spreadsheets for its supporting calculations. He was surprised to find the error of the missing LNG fuel costs, along with several other mistakes, that “artificially inflate the benefit of LNG by at least $1.2 billion” and, after correction, show that LNG will increase costs to consumers “by at least $300 million.”   

 Isaac Moriwake provided this full statement in response to the briefing:  

“This is what happens when you make hidden deals and force results—but it’s the people of Hawaiʻi who end up paying the real price.  How many months and millions of dollars has this administration wasted chasing this mirage?  How far would they have dragged us down this multi-billion dollar dead end, until anyone bothered to check their math? 

We call on this administration to stop throwing precious time and money after bad and refocus on maximizing renewable resources that comply with Hawai‘i’s climate and clean energy mandates and deliver real savings for Hawai‘i’s people.”  

Watch the video of the hearing.