Energy Perspective: Renewable energy must be redefined
In an effort to identify the problems and propose solutions to Hawaii’s energy future, The Hawaii Independent proposed questions to individuals who could contribute their unique insight in the energy dialogue.
Henry Curtis has been the Executive Director of Life of the Land since 1995. The organization is a Hawaii environmental and community action group founded in February 1970. Curtis has represented Life of the Land in over 25 contested case regulatory proceedings, primarily before the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Here are his responses:
1. What do you do to conserve energy?
We use CFLs, plan trips in advance to mimimize gasoline usage, reducing or turning off air conditioning in the office, turn off lights in rooms when we are not in them, take shorter showers, and realize that often there is enough ambient light in rooms so that additional artificial lights are not needed. The Life of the Land website has additional information.
To visit the Life of the Land website, click here
2. What do you think are Hawaii’s most pressing energy obstacles?
The most pressing energy obstacles are:
(1) A utility which maximizes profits by maintaining the status quo. The newly instituted decoupling mechanism is supposed to cure the problem but does not do so.
Decoupling is a mechanism adopted by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) whereby the amount of energy sold by the utility does not affect the profit the utility makes. The utility is guaranteed ratepayer funds to remain “whole” no matter what happens to sales or the economy.
The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) wanted to tie this utility reward with a requirement that the utility reach specific renewable energy benchmarks, but the PUC declined to accept this argument. Thus the utility is free to use its additional ratepayer generated revenue to talk green while resisting green measures.
(2) The secrecy surrounding gifts, donations, and junkets received by government regulators. Commissioners on State boards overseeing energy projects (Board of Land and Natural Resources, Land Use Commission, PUC, etc.) must file ethic forms with the State, but unlike legislators and federal judges, these can only be viewed by the Governor and his appointees.
(3) The statement that there is only one path forward and people either support that path or are wrong. The truth is: We are at a crossroads and can take any of a dozen paths “forward.” Different paths have different winners and losers. Different economic, social, and global impacts. Different risks and different side-effects.
We should be emphasizing strength through diversity of opinion. We need an honest and open discussion now in communities across Hawaii nei. As Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said: “The power to question is the basis of all human progress.”
Worldwide, the fossil fuel industry is a $10 billion/day industry, and they can afford to spin the truth and fund people to defend the spin.
Here in Hawaii, the utility embeds itself in many other entities creating an atmosphere where energy policy is shaped based on utility profit rather than what is best for the State. The decoupling mechanism needs to be altered so that corporate profits and community objectives are aligned.
(4) The State’s use of terms like “alternative fuel,” “renewable energy,” and “clean energy,” none of which have any relationship to economic, environmental, social, and cultural impacts. These need to be defined in a sustainable manner.
3. Are Hawaii businesses, organizations, and individuals on the right path in terms of reducing our energy consumption?
Reducing one’s own energy demand through conservation and efficiency saves money that can then be spent on other economic activities or invested so that others can use the money to expand their economic activity. Thus, reducing one’s own energy demand spurs economic growth. Economic growth requires energy. From a planetary perspective, energy efficiency and conservation do nothing to reducing the total demand for energy, they merely shift what is produced and consumed and by whom. This has been known for 150 years. Money saved from conservation and efficiency should be earmarked specifically for renewable energy projects.
4. What do you see as Hawaii’s best source of alternative energy?
Hawaii has continuous (baseload) energy resources such as geothermal and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC); intermittent (variable) energy resources such as wind, solar electric, solar thermal, and ocean swell (artificial blowholes); and energy displacement resources such as Sea Water Air Conditioning. Each serves a purpose in a portfolio.
Having six separate grids is a plus in that different approaches can be implemented on different islands. A mix of central station and distributed energy can be beneficial.
5. Will the State of Hawaii reach its 2030 goal of 70 percent clean energy? Why or why not? And more importantly, at what cost?
70 percent clean energy by 2030 is the wrong question embedded in the wrong question. It is spin created by fossil fuel proponents to sound green.
Clean energy is not defined under State law, State regulatory policy, or Public Utilities Commission policy. In general, clean energy is used by some to mean renewable energy and energy efficiency.
However, under Hawaii State law, renewable energy includes (a) coal burned in a garbage-to-energy facility, (b) coal-based ethanol and biodiesel burned in a utility generator, and (c) heat generated from coal and oil generators.
The renewable energy penetration level, under State law, can vary from negative infinity to positivie infinity. Relying on half renewables can result in a negative renewable energy penetration level while relying on only fossil fuel can result in 3000 percent renewable.
The State definition of renewable energy uses five times the number or words that are needed, and is meant to be confusing and to hide what it really says.
The State definition of renewable energy does not consider the environmental, greenouse gas, cultural, social or economic impact in determining if something is renewable. Thus chopping down the Amazon rainforst to grow biofuel crops and shipping them to Hawaii on coal-belching ships to burn in utility generators is considered renewable energy.
Regarding cost, adding additional baseload geothermal energy to the Hawaii Island grid is cheaper than relying on fossil fuels. Instead, HECO is proposing that Oahu ratepayers give a $21 million/year subsidy to Hawaii Island’s politically connected biofuel operation called Aina Koa Pono, in order for them to produce expensive biodiesel for HELCO. The Hilo and Kona hearings occur on August 2 from 9:00 a.m. The Oahu hearing is August 4 at 6:00 p.m. in the basement of the PUC Building (465 South King Street at Punchbowl—across King Street from the State Library).
To visit the Public Utilities Commission public hearings calendar, click here
The definition of renewable energy should focus on minimizing negative economic, environmental, and cultural impacts.
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