Session Description
Over the history of IA, Psycho-Social Impact Assessment has struggled to find its place among required indicators of assessment. A major breakthrough occurred on the island of Hawai’i beginning in the late 1980s, when two overlapping groups began to demand a PSIA of geothermal energy, neighbors of existing geothermal plants and Native Hawaiians who are followers of the Goddess Pele. Geothermal plant neighbors have suffered major disasters, contamination, noxious odors and health impacts over this time related to a pilot facility and an operating geothermal plant. The adequacy of protective emergency response is doubted and many fear further H2S releases. Pele Practitioners have suffered a threat to their belief and practice through the perceived defilement and dissipation of the life force of the Goddess Pele. Both groups have opposed facility siting and expansion. A third geothermal plant was stopped more than 40 years ago through massive demonstrations and litigation in one of the three epic battles that has marked the reemergence of Native Hawaiian identity. However, litigation over cultural loss has been stymied and both neighbors and natives have consistently felt that their issues are not weighed in permit decisions. After decades of inaction on their demands for a PSIA, funding was eventually approved. The long-delayed study will be publicly released in late 2026. The proposed panel discusses the issues leading to the study, the PSIA itself, the initial reactions to its release, and its implications for permit and civil decisions in Hawaii and beyond. The case has important implications for the inclusion of PSIA as a key component of IA in the next fifty years.
Session Summary
This panel explores a Psycho-Social Impact Assessment of geothermal energy in Hawaii focusing on neighbors of existing facilities and Native Hawaiian Pele Practitioners. Discussion covers the PSIA, its origin, reactions to its release, and its implications in Hawaii and beyond for the future inclusion of PSIA in IA.
Additional Information
This session complements the proposed 2-day professional development PSIA course and the fishbowl session proposed by the PSIA working group on building the legitimacy of PSIA by providing an in-depth case study of a project intended to mainstream PSIA in Hawaii involving geothermal energy development. The panel will include the chair, the study’s lead author, as well as key actors in Hawaii geothermal, including at least one prominent Native Hawaiian and a key attorney (already confirmed), a geothermal neighbor and activist.
Session Chair
Michael Edelstein
Ramapo College of New Jersey
United States