Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative
Feb
On October 20, 2008, in the chambers of Governor Linda Lingle, an historic agreement was signed between the State of Hawaii and the Hawaiian Electric companies.
The energy agreement, part of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, puts Hawaii on a path to supply 40 percent of electricity needs and 70 percent of overall energy needs (including transportation) using clean sources by 2030, a far-reaching change for a state now over 90 percent dependent on imported fossil fuels.
As a state, we have strong motivation to achieve the goals of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative. Our dependence on imported fossil fuel has adverse security and economic impacts. Much of the oil we import comes from foreign countries not friendly to the United States. Most experts predict oil prices will rise as the world economy picks up and the cost of controlling carbon emissions is added through a tax or cap-and-trade system. Hawaii exports between $6 billion and $7 billion annually to buy fuel for the Hawaiian Islands, a huge figure for a string of remote islands with a population of only about 1.2 million (plus over six million visitors a year.)
To these concerns, we now add our new understanding of greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change. It is now clear the energy system that powered Hawaii well for decades when oil was plentiful and cheap cannot be sustained.
Hawaii’s total production of greenhouse gas may be small, even on a per capita basis, but as an island state in a tropical hurricane path, we are among the most vulnerable places on earth to rising sea levels, more intense storms and even drought.
The energy agreement was negotiated amongst the Hawaiian Electric Companies, the Governor of the State of Hawaii, the Energy Division of the State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, the State Consumer Advocate and the U.S. Department of Energy.
We can not afford inaction and, we believe, the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative puts Hawaii on the right path.
Source: HECO