Corporate funding is provided by mutual of america designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why we are your retirement company. Additional support is provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. From the tisch wnet studios in Lincoln Center in new york, hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan good evening. Thanks for joining us. President obama met with rule, the first meeting of its kind in more than 50 years and the latest in a series of developments pointing towards a normalization of relations between the two countries this after a widely photographed handshake last night and a phone call between the two men earlier in the week. The newshours William Brangham has more. Reporter at the summit of the americas meeting today in panama, both president obama and cuban president raul castro hailed the recent improvements in relations between their two longestranged nations. This shift in u. S. Policy represents a turning point for our entire region. The fact that president castro and i are both sitting here today marks an historic occasion. And i firmly believe that if we can continue to move forward and seize this momentum in pursuit of mutual interests, then better relations between the United States and cuba will create new opportunities for cooperation across our region. Reporter president castro offered a litany of complaints about ongoing u. S. Treatment of his country but said he didnt hold obama responsible for what came before his presidency, including the economic blockade the u. S. Has maintained against cuba for over half a century. translated we have publicly expressed to president obama our recognition of his valiant decision to involve himself in a debate with the congress of his country to put an end to the blockade against cuba. Reporter hours later the two leaders had their private meeting. Last night they shook hands, yet another public gesture of good they made headlines with another handshake in 2013 at Nelson Mandelas funeral in south africa. The gathering in panama is just the latest step in president obamas efforts to renew relations with cuba, which have been frozen since president Dwight Eisenhower severed diplomatic relations over concerns that fidel castro was turning his island nation into an outpost of soviet communism. But last december, after 18 months of secret talks president obama announced the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries and urged what he called a serious debate about lifting the economic embargo this weekends summit of the americas meeting was the first time u. S. Officials didnt block cubas attendance at the gathering. Sreenivasan hundreds of mourners gathered in South Carolina today to pay respects to walter scott, the unarmed africanamerican man gunned down last week by a North Charleston police officer. The shooting, which was recorded by a bystander, showed scott being shot in the back as he ran away from officer michael slager. Slager was later fired and charged with murder. Scotts casket, draped by an american flag, was wheeled into his Family Church as loved ones arrived. Other events honoring scott were held throughout the city last night and today. A second man has been charged in connection with that alleged foiled plot to set off a car bomb at an army base in kansas. Alexander blair was charged with failing to report a felony. If convicted, he could face up to three years imprisonment. Authorities claim he knew of john bookers plans to plant the bomb in an effort to kill as many soldiers as possible at fort reily. Booker was arrested yesterday in an f. B. I. Sting operation. A muslim cleric said today booker is mentally ill. To mark the upcoming fifth anniversary of the deepwater horizon explosion and the huge Gulf Oil Spill that followed the Obama Administration is set to announce new regulations covering offshore oil and gas drilling. This, according to the new york times. The newspaper says the administration will propose tightening safety requirements on what are known as blowout preventers, what it describes as the last line of protection to prevent explosions in undersea oil and gas wells. Even as it moves to tighten safety rules, the Obama Administration has signaled that it will open up new areas in the atlantic to drilling. The president and first lady have made public their tax returns, and they show that the obamas adjusted gross income last year was a little less than 500,000. Thats actually the lowest amount since 2004 as royalties from the president s book sales declined. The obamas paid more than 93,000 in taxes, just less than 20 of their income; and they donated more than 70,000 to charity, nearly 15 of their income. A florida eye clinic has agreed to pay one of its former employees 150,000 after being sued by the federal government for alleged transgender discrimination. The equal Employment OpportunityCommission SaidBrandi Branson was wrongfully fired after transitioning from male to female. Activists say the ruling could help establish new Legal Protections for transgender americans. Sreenivasan for more about the summit of the americas and the changing u. S. Cuban relationship, we are joined now by Carla Robbins. She is an adjunct senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. So, why was this meeting so important . Its been a very very long time since theres been any contact, certainly this level, i think. Were talking about batista and eisenhower. Its a very very long time. Sreenivasan cuba started i should say the president of cuba started his eightminute speech and told everybody im going to go longer because its the castro way. Actually, 50 is short for them 50 minutes. Sreenivasan when he spoke, he railed against sort of historical u. S. Foreign policy but said im not holding the president of the United States, barack obama responsible for this almost apologized to him. He did apologize to him. Im not sure he did a lot of favors in american politics by doing that. It was sort of a very weird, dissident moment. This was a classic castro performance, much more his brother than raul, to condemn the United States, and saying, of course, its not you, you youngster pup werent responsible for it. Sreenivasan juxtapose that from open hostility from the leader of venezuela, the leader of ecdo, right now, really speaking at the president and saying heres why the United States is a horrible place and a horrible country. On the other hand everybody else was embraced obama for many, many reasons, of course. In good part, also, because he decided to end the hostility toward cuba. I mean, they had insisted on this at the last two summits, saying its time for this relic of the cold war to be over with. Sreenivasan what does it take to lift the sanctions, what are the chances . Lifting the sanctions thats the embargo and obama cant do that. That was written into law. It was a matter of president ial executive order from kennedy to clinton, written in the 70s and signed by clinton. The president has a lot of room to maneuver and the first they think has to happen is taking cuba off the terrorism list and the cubans are insisting on that saying theyre not going to restore diplomatic relations unless that happens. Sreenivasan what are the political consequences if he were to take cuba off the terrorist list today or tomorrow . Theyll do it. A few days ago he said he has gotten his recommendation but will not tell us what its going to be. They will do it. But every single move they take in the next week days hours whenever its going to be, every move theyre going to be making theyre going to be thinking about the fact they have to worry about the iran negotiations, and its the same group of people that are going to be complaining about it, and ultimately, at the end of the day, the iran negotiations are the thing that matter most. Sreenivasan is there an advantage for the president to wait than declare something today . Its threedimensional chess. I could game it. Yomay want to do it all at once any get on over with. Marco rubio is going to declare on monday and there will be a lot of complaining about the embrace today not literal embrace but certainly the handshake. On the other hand, you really do have to worry about that legislation that theyre contemplating that theyll be hearing on tuesday about iran on the hill, the question about iran. Theres no question that its gog remain on the list of the state sponsors of terrorism. And these things come together with the same group of people. And obamas argument is you dont negotiate with your friend. You do with your enemies. At the same time, its impossible to do avoid having them conflated. Sreenivasan all right Carla Robbins adjunct senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. Thank you very much. Thank you. Sreenivasan and now to our signature segment. Tonight, we take you to hawaii a state whose residents have the highest monthly electricity bills in the nation. After all, it takes plenty of time and money to ship oil there, so it makes sense that more and more hawaiians are turning to an another potentially less expensive source of energy, one thats all around them the sun. But converting to solar energy has proven anything but simple in hawaii, and whats happening there could be a preview of things to come elsewhere in the nation. Newshour special correspondent mike taibbi reports from oahu hawaii. Reporter theyre everywhere on oahu on the roofs of businesses, libraries and one house after another. The amount of rooftop solar now accounts for 12 of the electric utilitys users. Thats more than 20 times the national average. Its by far the highest penetration of individual rooftop solar in the country. But in this tropical state, where the combination of Sky High Energy prices, abundant sunshine and federal and state tax credits makes going solar a nobrainer, the very popularity of these panels has become a problem. So, we drive up, and you have these lovely solar panels on your roof. Hows that working out for you . laughs its not reporter not working out because by the time Aircraft Mechanic carlton ho joined the rooftop solar parade in september 2013, there were so many people in his area that had installed panels that the local Utility Company told him dont turn on that switch yet. So its just a question of turning the switch on and you have juice. Yeah. Reporter from your own roof. And everything is awesome reporter but its not that simple. When you install solar panels, youre still reliant on the local utility. When its dark or when the sun isnt shining, you need the grid to provide electricity. Even so, solar customers have a fundamentally different relationship with the utility because when the sun is shining any extra energy their panels generate is supplied back to the grid. That earns a credit, further reducing their electric bill. But in areas of oahu, with so many homeowners going solar, the utility said the safety and reliability of the grid could be threatened, and it slowed to a crawl the approval of new systems. Weve made a lot of progress, but we know there is still a lot to do as we increase rooftop solar. Reporter colton ching is Vice President for Energy Delivery at Hawaiian Electric company, or heco as the utility is known. What was happening was that power, which normally flows from the grid to our customers, was now beginning to flow back into those substations, substations which were not 30, 40 years ago designed to operate in that manner. Reporter in addition, heco had a hard time measuring all that solar. Right now, we dont know exactly how much power rooftop solar is producing at any given moment. Reporter so, you cant see at all what 10 to 20 of your Customer Base is producing . We cannot. We cannot see that. Reporter but while heco studied the problem, homeowners like carlton ho were left waiting. It had been a year and a half that his system had sat unused. Its got to be frustrating. Yes. Like, you come home, you look at the panels on your ceiling, and you know you cant do anything with it. The bill comes every month. You know youve got two bills because i still have my financing. I have to pay for that. I have my electric bills, so. Reporter ho was left paying his regular electric bill, about 150 a month, plus another 240 a month in payments for the 23,000 solar panels hed bought but couldnt use. Hawaiian electric needs to and has taken steps to work with our customers to find solutions that works for them and works for the grid. And we havent been perfect. It hasnt been a perfectly smooth process. Reporter there have been some ugly moments, frankly. There have been some very, very tough moments. Its been learning moments for us within the utility. Reporter and for the solar industry, which took a big hit when the utility slowed new approvals; there were hundreds of layoffs and stockpiles of solar equipment. But those solar customers waiting to turn on their systems or even get permission to Start Construction knew that going solar would still be a good deal; a system up and running would reduce their energy bills dramatically. In the meantime, nonsolar customers still the majority were paying much more to maintain the public grid than those with their own panels on the roof, a disparity heco suggested could be unfair. It makes sense that everyone who uses the grid should pay their share to maintain and improve it because everyone benefits from it. Reporter heco says that non solar customers have in a sense been subsidizing those with rooftop solar when it comes to keeping the grid humming, a cost shift estimated at more than 50 million. All these problems delays, questions about grid reliability and fairness could soon be seen all across the country as the penetration of rooftop solar continues to increase. Solar panels are no longer just for sunbelt states; even the white house had panels installed last may. Over the past few years, the cost of solar panels have fallen by 60 . Solar installations have increased by 500 . Reporter but rooftop solar on a massive scale has consequences that are still being measured. The states on the mainland will eventually be having to deal with some of the issues that were dealing with here. Reporter dr. Marco mangelsdorf is a solar contractor who also teaches energy politics. Hawaii has been called a postcard from the future because of how much rooftop solar is already out here. We are on the new frontier in hawaii as far as trying to come up with a practical, safe answer to a very, very difficult question which does not have a definitive answer. Reporter namely, just how much rooftop solar can the grid accommodate. And while delays for rooftop solar customers have angered many in hawaii, mangelsdorf argues that the caution shown by the utility is warranted. You cannot allow a freefor all anybody and everybody to connect to a utility grid without any type of requirements or monitoring just as you cant have anybody and everybody get on a freeway with a bicycle, with a horse, with a buggy, with a moped. I mean, the utility grid is a public good, Public Infrastructure that must be maintained. Reporter but some say delays in approving rooftop solar are less about prudence than about profit and preserving the utilitys centuryold Business Model as a monopoly. The problem is that they inherently dont want to see more of this rooftop solar, and they are also arbiters of what power can come on or whats reliable and whats safe. Reporter Robert Harris is director of Public Policy for sunrun, another solar contractor. He says that utilities are cautious by nature but that they cant ignore the changing landscape around rooftop solar. The comparison would be, for example, the typewriter industry trying to stop computers because they want to preserve their own Business Model. And here you could argue that theres a better model out there thats going to be cheaper and cleaner. You know, we need to be working hard and trying to make that work better, not just trying to stop it. Reporter did heco fail in some fundamental way to see the future . I dont think we failed. I do. In hindsight, i do believe that we could have seen it sooner. We are undergoing a literal transformation process as we speak. It is this change in relationship, the change in the compact between the utility and its customers. Its no longer the monopoly utility thats making all of the decisions and passing it down to its customers. Reporter heco has approvals for rooftop solar moving again and hopes to triple the amount of rooftop solar by 2030, but it may not be in a position to decide. Last december, heco announced it was being sold to nextera, a floridabased utility giant. If the deal with nextera does go through, hawaiis electricity consumers will be serviced by a company that says it is committed to Renewable Energy sources at this point, primarily utilityscale solar and wind installations. That means big solar and wind farms, which today produce more Renewable Energy across the country than the smallscale rooftop systems that are so popular on hawaii. Still, the old model, though a utility producing all the power, just using a different source and selling it virtually as a monopoly. That is not the hawaii way, or at least the way many here have said they insist on going to have a choice. Once we get this thing powered, yeah. A year and a half of frustration, well get over it. Reporter for carlton ho and his family, that day finally arrived after a year and a half of waiting. They got permission to turn that switch on last month, and their solar system is now up and running. Sreenivasan see how some hawaii residents have managed to start living