Hawaiian Electric says two major fossil fuel-fired power plants on Maui are still on track to retire even after the federal government recently eased restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency said last week that it was repealing most of the Biden administration’s greenhouse gas requirements for U.S. power plants. The EPA also was proposing rescinding all remaining greenhouse gas standards for the power sector.

The agency argued the rules were “effectively forcing plants to retire rather than setting standards they could actually meet.” 

Hawaiian Electric, which has been planning for years to retire the Kahului and Mā‘alaea power plants on Maui, said the EPA changes would “have no effect” on its facilities. 

“The revisions do not alter the company’s commitment to Hawaiʻi’s clean energy goals, renewable energy integration, grid modernization, or emissions reductions objectives,” the company said in a statement to the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative. “The EPA rules for GHG emissions also do not have any bearing on our intent to retire older units as part of our plan for the grids to integrate more renewable energy.”

For the last decade, Hawaiian Electric has been pushing toward a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045 under a state law passed in 2015. The company had reached 37% renewable energy across the five islands it serves as of 2025.

Hawai‘i island is the most reliant on renewable energy at 57.3%, followed by Maui County at 41.6% and O‘ahu at 32.3%, according to Hawaiian Electric’s 2025-26 sustainability report. Kauaʻi is powered by the Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative.

As part of Hawaiian Electric’s plan, the company has been investing in more renewable energy and battery storage projects while moving to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants. 

The Mā‘alaea Generating Station, located just off North Kīhei Road, is the largest source of power on the island at 212.1 megawatts. The facility has permits for a “tiered closure of individual generating units between 2027 and 2032,” according to Hawaiian Electric.

The Kahului Power Plant, located near the harbor, has 37.6 megawatts. The plant has permits to retire its generating units by 2028. 

In January, Hawaiian Electric started construction of the first standalone load-shifting battery energy storage system on Maui that it said would allow it to retire the four generating units at the Kahului plant. The grid-connected Waena battery system includes 40 megawatts and 160 megawatt-hours.

Maui County’s renewable energy sources are primarily solar and wind. One of the biggest renewable projects on the horizon is the $241 million second phase of the Kūihelani Solar Project in Central Maui that is expected to power about 18,425 homes annually for at least 20 years and at a fixed price.

However, the planned closure of the power plants ran into a snag in May when the EPA partially rejected Hawai‘i’s 2024 Regional Haze State Implementation Plan, “thus not approving the premature closure of several units at critical power plants,” including Kahului. States are required to develop these types of plans to protect visibility and air quality around national parks under the Clean Air Act. 

In July, Attorney General Anne Lopez filed a petition on behalf of the Hawai‘i Department of Health challenging the EPA’s partial disapproval of the plan. 

Hawaiian Electric said with the plan currently under appeal, “it is not clear” whether the retirement dates of the plants will be affected. 

“It is still our plan to retire these generating units in a reasonable timeframe as conditions allow,” Hawaiian Electric said. 

The company added that it planned to talk to the Hawai‘i Department of Health about “revising Hawai‘i’s long-term strategy to fulfill the requirements of the Regional Haze Rule, balance grid reliability and minimize impacts on our customers.”

Isaac Moriwake, managing attorney of the Mid-Pacific Office of Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm, said Hawaiian Electric’s shift to renewable energy still holds despite the EPA’s changes to greenhouse gas requirements because HECO is following state law.

“Hawai‘i’s not regulating plant pollution through these laws,” Moriwake noted. “It is basically establishing a renewable energy requirement. … And then because we were pushing forward on renewable energy, the pollution reduction was happening along the way.”

When the EPA repealed the greenhouse gas requirements for power plants, it said the move would save billions of dollars and “restore reliable and affordable baseload power.” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at the time that coal and natural gas help keep the lights on during periods of peak electricity demand.

In addition to the cost savings and clean emissions of renewable energy, whose pricing has become much more competitive in recent years, Moriwake thinks the argument that keeping fossil fuel plants alive would make energy reliable puts too much faith in an aging system. 

“There’s nothing reliable about relying on last century’s technology as we’re burning up the planet,” he said, adding that recent storms “have shown how brittle our legacy electric system is after all.”

Hawai‘i residents across the state, especially in rural areas, have dealt with multi-day power outages during a busy hurricane season in which strong winds and falling trees have knocked out critical power lines and utility poles.

Moriwake pointed out that these types of regulations change with presidential administrations. He felt like the back and forth was just a waste of time on an issue of climate change that would have to be faced eventually — “you’re gonna pay now or you’re gonna pay later,” he said.

“It’s like fiddling while Rome burns, but just doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry,” he said. “And nevermind the untold damage and harm that you’re gonna be imposing on people across the globe and future generations.”