Abercrombie: Big Island to 'Lead the Way'

Hawaii Governor - Neil Abercrombie

By TOM CALLIS
Updated: 12:06 am - June 26, 2012
Tribune-Herald staff writer

The future of the state will depend much on the Big Island, particularly with its development of energy and agriculture, Gov. Neil Abercrombie told business leaders in Hilo on Monday.

During the speech to about 130 Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce members at the Hilo Yacht club, the governor laid out a confident outlook on the state’s future, and hinted at another speech to come later this week that he said is going to be “very, very positive” about Hawaii’s fiscal position.

Saturday marks the end of his first full fiscal year while in office.

“In a few days time I think you are going to be very well pleased,” said Abercrombie, who didn’t offer any details.

But Abercrombie, who turns 74 today, also assured the businessmen and women that the island will not be on the periphery when it comes to the state’s future.

“The Big Island is going to lead the way … in setting the direction of the state,” he said.

Abercrombie said it has “endless possibilities” in regards to providing energy to the rest of Hawaii, adding that the big issue in Honolulu is how to “deliver it to the rest of the islands.”

He didn’t mention geothermal power, considered a key part of the state’s energy future.

Talk of expansion of geothermal production has recently caused a resurgence in opposition to the power source in Puna, which hosts the state’s only geothermal plant.

The state Legislature this last session developed the regulatory framework for the creation of an underwater power cable that would connect the islands, if a private developer decides to take it on.

The idea is that the cable would allow the islands to share cheap, reliable geothermal power, as well as other renewable sources, and lower the costs of energy production.

Abercrombie received applause when he mentioned his support for adding a fourth state senate seat to the island.

The addition was the result of a 25 percent population growth on the island between 2000 and 2010.

“I supported it because it was the right thing to do,” he said.

Abercrombie also said the island is “right in the center and key of it” when it comes to agriculture.

He noted the cattle industry in particular, adding that the state will come out with an agriculture plan in January.

Abercrombie also spoke of the island’s military presence, saying the state should host more troops serving the Pacific region.

“We have to be ahead of the curve,” he said, noting the transition of troops out of Okinawa, Japan.

“We have the training capacity for 21st century marines and army in Pohakuloa.”

He ended his speech by telling the chamber, “I think we’re on our way to a new day in Hawaii and on the Big Island in particular.”

Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.

Oahu-Centric Energy Plans Disregard Neighbor Islands

By Cynthia Oi

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser

We are one state, the governor says, which is true, but out of true.

We are one state made up of islands connected under a government, but separated by vast stretches of ocean. That separation throws the truth of oneness off kilter, since it engenders divergent ways of living and somewhat conflicting aspirations and goals.

We are one state, but what Honolulu wants, what residents, business concerns, interest groups and political leaders on Oahu desire, isn’t quite what residents, businesses, interest groups and communities on Kauai, Lanai, Maui, Molokai or Hawaii island want.

Not all is different. Local residents — newbies and kamaainas, rural and urban — seek a good place to live, a clean environment, enough money and decent employment to make ends meet, and energy at reasonable cost.

Few will get the last, unless they become individually energy self-sufficient for the long term and remain disconnected to the power and power-production grid.

The governor, state Legislature, power producers and their allies have initiated a plan for a statewide energy system, establishing a regulatory framework for an undersea electricity transmission cable.

The measure is the starting point for hitching Oahu with its huge and growing appetite for electricity to what’s often referred to belittlingly as the outer or outlying islands, where renewable energy plants will have more space to breed.

The notion is the connectivity will benefit the neighbor islands, providing jobs, industry and more revenue ostensibly in local control. Oahu, crowded and getting more land poor with each suburban development given government blessing, will get to use the wind-, sun- and volcano-generated electricity.

The link will bring energy-cost equality, cable advocates say. All across Hawaii, electricity customers will pay one rate. It probably won’t be cheaper because the companies that control the grid will get to pass along the cost of the cable, now guesstimated at $1 billion, and renewable energy infrastructure and production will be expensive. Oneness in a sprawling power grid may not be a wise move anyway, subject to disasters natural and human-precipitated.

Hawaii’s goal to move away from fossil-fueled power is necessary. No one would argue with that. But the idea that the cable is essential to that intent, as the governor says, is premature in this early stage of renewable energy development.

Each island’s needs, potentials and conservation efforts should be assessed first, followed by a look at what resources can be reasonably tapped with least disruption to land, ocean, air and people. What will be acceptable should be evaluated based on the island’s community, not on what another needful, bustling region craves. Energy production and transmission that disturb and damage the character and atmosphere of an island is not sustainable.

Cable advocates argue that because Oahu, with the biggest revenue streams, subsidizes their highways, parks, social services and schools, the neighbor islands should be willing to shoulder the energy production burden.

It is an argument that goes against the theme of oneness. It reinforces neighbor islanders’ perception that the ocean that buffers them from the afflictions of brawny, overbearing Oahu should not be bridged.