Hawaii Island Energy Forum | Hamakua Springs

If you attend one forum this year, I highly recommend it be this one.

We’ve been positioning our farm for the future for a while now, and we know that things are moving fast on the energy front. What is the future likely to be? This forum will give valuable information so you can plan for the future.

Gail Tverberg, the featured speaker, is extremely knowledgeable and highly credible. She is in the top tier of writers about energy issues.

Her professional job is as an actuary. She advises insurance companies on risk and rewards. She speaks the language of business in a clear and common sense way. Of all the energy writers out there, I find her approach to be the most balanced.

Here’s the forum information:

Hawaii Island Energy Forum
Business Challenges, Business Opportunities, and the New Energy Reality
9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ∙ June 6, 2008 ∙ Hilo Hawaiian Hotel

Individual consumers and local businesses are feeling the “crunch” of rising fuel costs. For some of us, our employees are telling us that they can barely afford the gas money to come to work. What do we have to know and what can we do to preserve prosperity in the face of rapidly changing circumstances?

At the request of private and public sector leaders, The Kohala Center has designed this one-day session to explore critical business issues with energy experts and economists, as we all confront the new energy reality. This session is designed specifically for the Hawaii Island business community and is co-sponsored by the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, the Kona Kohala Chamber of Commerce, and the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board. Members of each of our organizations are invited to attend.

Talks and panel discussions with national and local experts will cover the following topics:

9:30 am – Welcome, opening speakers Mayor Harry Kim and County Council Chairman Pete Hoffman

10 am – Economic implications of the rising prices and diminishing supplies of liquid fossil fuel: Gail Tverberg, Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries

10:45 am – Economic implications for Hawaii: Makena Coffman, Ph.D., Department of Economics, UH Manoa

11:30 am – Technical challenges and opportunities for increasing renewable energy resource use on Hawaii Island; the importance of acting quickly and collaboratively: Maurice Kaya, former Chief Technology Officer at DBEDT and Jay Ignacio, CEO of Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO)

1 pm – Regulatory barriers and potential solutions to deploying renewable energy: Jim Lazar, Regulatory Assistance Project; Carl Freedman, Haiku Analysis and Design

2:15 pm – Transport challenges and opportunities in the public and private sectors: Tom Brown, County of Hawaii Transit Agency; and Maria Tome, Energy Engineer at DBEDT

3:30 pm – Business opportunities and investments to take advantage of the new energy reality: Miles Kubo, Energy Industries, and Riley Saito, SunPower Corporation.

4:30 pm – Wrap-up with Maurice Kaya and Richard Ha, Hamakua Springs Country Farms

Additional speakers are confirming their participation. For more information and to register for this forum, please contact The Kohala Center at 808.887.6411 or email assist@kohalacenter.org. A registration form is available for download at www.kohalacenter.org. The cost is $60.