Misty Cluett
RepublicanQ1 As energy prices continue to increase in Hawaiʻi, what role, if any, should alternative energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and liquefied natural gas, play in Hawaiʻi’s future energy mix? What policies would you support related to alternative energy development, regulation, and/or research, and why?
“Hawaiʻi’s test for any energy source should be simple: does it lower bills, keep the lights on and commerce moving, and is it safe for the communities that host it, especially the keiki.
Hawaiʻi’s families already pay the highest rates in the nation. Oil, solar, wind, geothermal, and liquefied natural gas should all be allowed to compete, provided they meet minimum standards for health, safety and environmental impact. None should be locked in or locked out by special interests. It’s time to make the people’s interests the only interests.
I support an all-of-the-above policy with health and safety first, cost-benefit analysis before new mandates, lights on goals, and research on storage and geothermal rather than subsidies. The 2045 renewable mandate should be a goal, not a blank check.”
KEYWORDS: Safe power, reliable power, affordable power
Q2 Every county has faced a major disaster in the last decade, with more and more happening each year. What is your concrete plan to adapt to a world with more volatile, climate-driven risks and protect our communities?
“Hurricanes Lala and Lowell showed what happens when maintenance is already behind. Lala took down poles and transmission lines on Hawaiʻi Island in August. Lowell did the same on Kauaʻi in September, where distribution poles past their useful life failed, roads washed out where breakwalls were dilapidated or missing, and a month later some communications lines are still on the ground.
The same standard has to cover every island. Kauaʻi is served by the electric cooperative, KIUC. Hawaiʻi Island, Oʻahu, Maui, Lānaʻi, and Molokaʻi are served by the Hawaiian Electric companies. All of them answer to the Public Utilities Commission, and the commission follows statutes the House writes.
I will require each utility to publish pole age, last inspection, and failure rate, and to fund replacement of equipment past its service life, before the PUC approves a rate increase or sets storm costs aside for later recovery. Damage to an asset already beyond its service life should not be billed to customers a second time. Management pay should follow that schedule: replacements done, incentives paid; replacements missed, incentives withheld.
State money for county roads and breakwalls should work the same way. An inspection and a public repair schedule come before the check. Children are safer when the infrastructure is properly maintained so that it doesn’t have as high a failure rate when stressed.”
KEYWORDS: better maintanence
Q3 While data centers can be important facilities for processing, transferring, and storing data, there are growing concerns about data centers’ environmental impacts and health repercussions. What policies, if any, would you support to balance technological and economic growth with infrastructure reliability, environmental sustainability, and the preservation of land and water? For example, Bill 170 from Hawaiʻi County proposes to ban AI data centers and distinguish them from standard data processing facilities; should other counties follow suit?
“Other counties should follow the substance of Hawaiʻi County Bill 170. A hospital server room or a bank’s data closet is not the same thing as an industrial campus built to train artificial intelligence models. The bill draws that line. Ordinary data processing can stay in the zoning code. Large AI data centers should not.
These facilities do not belong on Hawaiʻi’s grids. Each island is electrically isolated. Rates are already the highest in the country because most of the power is still imported oil. A data center that runs around the clock would add a load the system does not have, and the members would pay for the upgrade. Water is the same problem. These plants need a steady supply for cooling. That water is already spoken for by drinking, farming, and firefighting.”
KEYWORDS: No AI Data Centers in Hawaii
Q4 Across the Hawaiʻi’s Public School System, a little more than 40% of students achieved math and science proficiency in the 2024-2025 school year. However, access to these opportunities varies across the state due to factors such as geography, school resources, and program availability. What policies do you support to expand equitable access to high-quality STEM and general education for students across Hawaiʻi, such as the use of AI in the classroom, increasing public funding, and more support for extracurricular activities?
“A little more than 40 percent proficiency in math and science is a classroom result, not a budget result. In 2023–24 the Department of Education spent $22,670 per student, $19,583 of it state and local. Counted another way, Hawaiʻi public schools received about $26,100 per student, roughly $5,100 above the national average. Another appropriation will not teach a child to multiply or to read a lab question.
What I support is a return to the basics, and a way for parents to leave a school that will not teach them. Early grades need phonics and arithmetic, practiced until the student has them. Middle and high school need real algebra and real science, with the score published by school so a family can see what it is getting. Discipline belongs in that list. A classroom that cannot keep order cannot teach STEM.
Money should follow the student. If a charter, private, or another program is actually producing proficiency, the dollars go there. The Department of Education does not get a blank check because it is the default. Competition creates value.
AI does not belong in math and science instruction. Students have to be able to do the work without it. A computer-lab elective is a different thing, and a school can offer one. It is not a substitute for a teacher.
Extracurricular STEM is a school and family job: clubs, fairs, and apprenticeships where a teacher or a parent will run them. The House should not build a new program to simulate that. Equitable access starts with every school teaching the same fundamentals, and with parents free to choose the one that does.”
KEYWORDS: school choice
Q5 Hawaiʻi faces unique obstacles in its transportation infrastructure, with inter-island travel, ports, and many rural communities. How can we balance environmentally sustainable technologies (such as sustainable aviation fuel, electric or hybrid vehicles, public transit options like the bus or rail) with equity for different communities?
“People have to be able to get there: airports, harbors, and roads are the system. I would not require airlines to buy a particular fuel, drivers to buy an electric vehicle, or counties to build rail. If a technology is cost prohibitive, and the neighbor islands cannot justify the use or cost, then it is not a valid transportation policy.
Passengers are limited to planes, and freight is stuck going through Young Brothers which is the only operator for bulk cargo between the islands. Airfare has increased significantly over the last several years, and the Public Utilities Commission approved a 25.75 percent rate increase for YB in 2026, and state law now allows further increases of up to 5 percent a year. Competition is the check on that. I would support another operator that can meet the safety rules, so shippers are not stuck with one option. We need competition to bring prices down.
The Superferry had a false start in 2009. Whale strikes and invasive species were argued, but what mitigation efforts were weighed? And how are whale strikes and invasive species handled by Young Brothers; could that be applied to a ferry? What about weighing these concerns against the flights that could be replaced by the ferry? I think we need to take a new look at this strategy to bring in more options to drive prices down.”
KEYWORDS: Superferry, Need competition