LANA'I CITY, Lana'i — Plans to build the largest wind farm in the state on Lana'i are part of a vision to make the island a model of renewable energy, but the project is encountering some headwinds in the form of community concern.

Not all Lana'i residents are pleased with the plans of David Murdock, the billionaire who owns 98 percent of the island, to develop a $750 million wind farm for exporting power to O'ahu via undersea cable.

The proposed wind farm, envisioned with as many as 125 turbines spread over 10,000 to 12,000 acres on Lana'i's remote and unpopulated northwest end, was announced last year with the intention to supply up to 20 percent of O'ahu's electricity demand.

Concern over the plan stems from fears that it could cut public access to hunting and fishing on the northwest end of the island. For some, it's also a matter of trust.

Many residents were upset with Murdock, who has owned nearly all of Lana'i since 1985, when he ended pineapple farming in the early 1990s and used drinking water from the island's main aquifer to irrigate a golf course.

Some residents resent Murdock, the owner of Castle & Cooke Inc., because they say his control of the land and employment of more than a third of the 3,000 people who live on the island amounts to a monarchy.

"The man on the big, white horsey," is what Lana'i postmaster Bradford Oshiro calls Murdock, making a reference to the bosses, or luna, that often exercised rule of plantation life on horseback.

If successful, the plan by Murdock would re-establish, in one sense, a green industry on Lana'i, Hawai'i's sixth-largest island, and transform what was known for nearly 70 years as the "Pineapple Island" into the "Power Island."

The plan also stands to diversify Lana'i's limited economy, which has suffered recently from the downturn in tourism and a near shutdown in Castle & Cooke's other major revenue source, resort home development.

Murdock also is developing a 10-acre solar photovoltaic farm slated for completion next month that would supply 10 percent of Lana'i's electricity demand.

More tentative initiatives Murdock is exploring include developing an energy lab on the island, and growing biofuel crops on some of the 20,000 now-fallow acres once planted in pineapple.

APPLAUSE AND CRITICISM

Murdock's energy plan has been called visionary by supporters, some of whom also talk about the vision as a potential legacy for Murdock, who is 85.

The corporate raider with diverse holdings from transportation equipment leasing to biotechnology park development is passionate about renewable energy. "I like the environment," he said during a July meeting with The Advertiser. "I guess you could say I'm a tree-hugger. I'm a greenie. I would like to do our total island green."

Still, concerns about Murdock's plans led 32 Lana'i residents to sign a letter published by The Advertiser on Aug. 10 in which the author, Robin Kaye, questioned how the plan would affect access, the environment and whether it would benefit Lana'i residents.

Murdock doesn't need a vote of approval from residents to develop the wind farm, but opposition could delay or derail his plans.

At a community meeting Aug. 15 in the Lana'i High and Elementary School cafeteria, Murdock expressed frustration over why some people wouldn't support his renewable energy plan.

"Why don't we all get together, do the same thing, make this island into something really spectacular?" he said to the audience. "I ask you with all sense of urgency: Start voting once in a while for the things we (Castle & Cooke) want to do. They are all for you one way or another. I'm not making any money on the island. I don't think in my lifetime I will ever make any. So I'm not taking anything away from you. I am giving far more to everyone in this room than you are giving to me."

Murdock estimated that he will lose $17 million to $20 million this year on Lana'i, which compares with what he said was a $19 million loss last year and a $31 million loss in 2006.

"I am trying to get us to economic stability," he said. "You be my benefit, and I'll be yours."

Murdock received applause after he spoke at the meeting. But some residents remain critical of his plan and dismiss what they say is a natural block of support from among the 1,100 people on the island employed by Castle & Cooke, including 750 working at the two luxury hotels, as well as from most small-business owners in Lana'i City who lease land from the company.

Murdock's most vocal critic on the island, retired state worker Ron McOmber, is wary of the wind farm plan and critical of a recent attempt by Murdock to fast-track government approvals by asking Gov. Linda Lingle to declare an energy emergency.

"We're prepared to fight him on this," said the 69-year-old McOmber, who calls Murdock a "vulture" and made national headlines in a memorable 1995 front-page story in The Wall Street Journal in which Murdock was quoted calling McOmber a "madman."

The wind farm has residents concerned about access to beaches and state-managed deer and sheep hunting grounds that run through the site.

"They're not going to let you go hunting in that area or go fishing in that area," said Oshiro, 55, the Lana'i postmaster. "They're going to lock it up."

Christopher Lovvorn, Castle & Cooke's director of alternative energy, said fishermen, hunters, hikers and beachgoers won't lose access to, or be restricted from, the area. He added that individual wind turbines won't even be fenced in.

HISTORY OF CONTENTION

Much of the concern or mistrust over Murdock's energy plan has roots in what has long been a contentious relationship Murdock has had with Lana'ians dating back to shortly after he bailed Castle & Cooke, one of Hawai'i's oldest companies, out of financial difficulty and became its chairman and chief executive in 1985.

At that time, Murdock announced that he would be more aggressive in developing Castle & Cooke property, and he proceeded with plans to develop two fancy hotels on Lana'i surrounded by hundreds of resort homes.

The 102-room Lodge at Koele in the middle of the island just above Lana'i City opened in 1990, and a year later was followed by the oceanfront 249-room Manele Bay hotel.

The resort projects didn't progress without a struggle. McOmber, a 38-year Lana'i resident who moved to the island to run a dive tour business, was among residents who questioned how Castle & Cooke would restrict beach access at Hulopo'e Bay adjacent to the Manele hotel site.

McOmber, originally from Los Angeles, helped form Lanaians for Sensible Growth, a group that enlisted the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. to contest the hotel project in a move that yielded a settlement defining public access to the privately owned beach park.

Another dispute surrounds water availability that became an issue around 1990 after Castle & Cooke sought to add a pair of 18-hole golf courses to its resort plan, one next to each hotel.

The chief concern was tapping the sole source of drinking water for Lana'i residents, a high-level aquifer, to water the Manele course, which is in an arid environment.

Some residents felt the plan threatened their drinking water supply. A lesser issue was watering the Koele course because Castle & Cooke agreed to switch to reclaimed water after five years for the cooler uplands course.

The Manele golf water battle has been fought in regulatory agencies and the courts. The state Land Use Commission in 1996 ordered the company to cease its use of the aquifer for the Manele course. But a Maui judge that year blocked the order because shutting down the golf course would cost workers their jobs and result in "irreparable harm." The issue remains unresolved, and the golf course continues to use the aquifer.

Murdock also upset many in the plantation community in 1990 when he announced he would end pineapple production by 1993, citing financial losses of $20 million a year on Lana'i.

At the time, Murdock took a lot of heat from Lana'ians and government officials for the decision. Murdock responded with an open letter in local newspapers that said he had made some mistakes and tough choices but overall had enhanced the community with job training, affordable housing and community facilities such as a recreational center and upgrades to the free municipal golf course.

LANA'I'S TRANSITIONS

Making Lana'i into a model of renewable energy production represents another big change for a small island that James Dole bought nearly all of in 1922 to expand his Hawaiian Pineapple Co. Ltd. and establish the world's largest pineapple plantation.

Though tourism has taken hold as the island's main industry, many still refer to Lana'i by its "Pineapple Island" nickname that officially gave way to the "Private Island" in the mid-1990s and more recently was changed to "Hawai'i's Most Enticing Island."

Today, Lana'i still is largely a plantation town with no stoplights or national brand retailers. Many, if not most, homes date to around the 1930s or 1940s. And the commercial center also reflects history in old buildings that used to serve as a plantation housing office (Bank of Hawaii), mule stable (Lana'i City Service gas station) and plantation dormitory (Pine Isle Market grocery store).

Oshiro the postmaster was born on Lana'i but was away from the island from 1971 to 1991 while serving in the military. When he returned, he anticipated becoming a plantation manager but was shocked that the plug had been pulled on pineapple. "I didn't like what I saw," he said.

Other longtime Lana'i residents, however, say the transition from agriculture to hotels and resort home development has been beneficial.

Kenneth Taal, 42, was born on Lana'i and used to work in the pineapple fields. Since 1991, he's worked at the Lodge at Koele and considers his job as a kitchen steward an improvement over the plantation past. "The change is good," he said.

Al Paradise, 56, was a pineapple plantation diesel mechanic for 19 years before joining the Manele Bay hotel in 1991 as a security officer and later a pool attendant. For the past four years, Paradise, who has two sons and five grandchildren living on Lana'i, has been the hotel's fitness center attendant.

"The lifestyle is the same now," he said. "We still do our fishing and hunting. The quality of life is good here."

McOmber dismisses much of the acceptance of changes instituted by Murdock as coming from people with economic ties to Castle & Cooke.

'I LOVE LANA'I'

But even critics are hard pressed to say what Murdock should do to better sustain the island's economy.

Castle & Cooke experimented with but failed to make money at diversified agriculture, including truck crops, a piggery and a cattle ranch.

Other futile attempts at sustained farming included an offer to give the state 100 acres to subdivide into 5-acre farm plots, and leasing 58 acres to local residents.

The only commercial farmer on the island today is Alberta De Jetley, who started her farm on 1.5 acres leased from Castle & Cooke in 2003. De Jetley now farms 18 acres planted in a variety of crops including lettuce and bananas she sells to the resorts and other local businesses.

Murdock's initial envisioned economic linchpin on Lana'i — selling luxury homes around the two hotels — hasn't been realized.

Castle & Cooke is entitled to build 1,100 homes in the two resort areas — 640 at Koele and 460 at Manele. Since sales began in 1995, the company has sold only 129 homes or lots for a combined value of $185 million.

The best year was eight years ago with 20 sales. Last year, sales began to slow to a trickle, and this year to date there have been four sales, which prompted Castle & Cooke to stop building more homes.

"I hate to put a lot of money in the ground until we start to see the resort market turn a little bit," said Harry Saunders, president of Castle & Cooke's Hawai'i operations.

The two hotels haven't turned a profit either for the company, which two years ago spent $80 million to renovate and rebrand the properties under Four Seasons Resorts.

All told, Murdock has invested close to $1 billion on Lana'i and continues to look for a way to turn a profit on the island while professing that his love for Lana'i and its people keep him from bailing out like the Singapore-based owner of Molokai Ranch, which ceased resort and ranching operations and laid off 120 employees in March.

"I love Lana'i, you must know that," Murdock told residents at the recent community meeting. "You only have to look across the water to Moloka'i to see what lack of someone that is in love with your island can do. I love everyone on the island. I am very much interested in the economic stability of Lana'i."

ECONOMIC NEED

Economic stability on Lana'i for more than a decade has been dependent on the state's tourism cycle, which is now contracting.

Unemployment on the island, which had hovered at 50 or fewer people every year from 1998 to 2007, this year rose to about 100 people, or about 5 percent of the working population. Observers say job losses, which have a ripple effect on other Lana'i businesses, are probably higher than reported because people who lose a job on Lana'i often leave the island.

In a sign of how economic troubles have grown recently, Lana'i's only gas station — where a gallon of regular grade fuel costs about $5.50 — recently terminated its long-standing "honor system" of letting customers pay for gas after they pump it. Lana'i City Service said there had been more than five incidents in the past two months where people filled their tanks and left without paying.

Wind power would help establish more economic stability for Lana'i primarily by giving Castle & Cooke a source of profit to help sustain other operations and investments on the island.

The wind farm is expected to create only a few jobs, perhaps 15 to 20, Lovvorn estimates.

But the project wouldn't necessarily reduce the cost of electricity for Lana'i residents, who pay the highest rates in the state at about 55 cents per kilowatt hour versus the statewide average of about 30 cents.

Castle & Cooke estimates it would not be cost effective to build a transmission line 10 miles across the island to Lana'i's power grid to deliver the relatively small amount of electricity needed to power the island with a peak demand of 4.5 megawatts.

By comparison, the cost to pipe electricity 50 miles to O'ahu from a 300 or 400 megawatt wind farm would be cost effective, Lovvorn said.

Conceivably, Castle & Cooke could build just one 5-megawatt wind turbine next to the power plant in the Palawai Basin to deliver electricity for significantly less than it costs Maui Electric Co. to run the diesel generators powering Lana'i, but that could create environmental or aesthetic concerns from residents.

That may be a tradeoff the community may or may not be willing to consider. "It's not promising, but it's not out of the question," Lovvorn said.

Jeff Mikulina, outgoing director of the Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter, said he supports Murdock's general plan to supply power to O'ahu with wind.

"This is an exciting project," he said. "We think Hawai'i needs to be — and will be — the role model for the globe for (renewable energy). Lana'i is certainly blessed with wind resources, and we should be tapping into that."

Murdock's plan would help the state achieve a renewable energy goal of obtaining 70 percent of energy in Hawai'i from clean, renewable sources by 2030.

A WORK IN PROGRESS

Castle & Cooke still has far to go to realize Murdock's vision. It isn't certain that area windspeeds, financing, environmental studies and other factors will all align to make the project feasible.

Wind measurements are being collected from six meteorological towers erected in the past year. Lovvorn said early results are promising, but that more data need to be collected to ensure the project can be financed.

Other big hurdles will be an environmental impact statement and arranging for Hawaiian Electric Co. to accept so much power on O'ahu. Realistically, it could be five to seven years to obtain all necessary permits.

Kepa Maly, executive director of the nonprofit Lana'i Culture & Heritage Center, likes the idea of Lana'i becoming an island of sustainable energy generation, but also said it's important that access issues and important cultural sites at the planned wind farm area are protected.

"I think we have the opportunity to have a good balance," he said. "We are the last intact plantation community, even though we're not a plantation anymore. There was a lot of concern in this community that as change occurs ... it shouldn't erase all that was before."