All posts by Leslie Lang

Peak Oil

Kuokoa Wants to Buy Hawaiian Electric Industries

2 Comments

Richard has a lot going on right now. This article from Pacific Business News has a good overview of what’s happening at the recently formed company Ku‘oko‘a Inc., where he has been named chairman of the board:

Kuokoa wants to buy HECO’s parent; it would sell American Savings

Pacific Business News – by Sophie Cocke, Pacific Business News

Date: Thursday, January 6, 2011, 8:06pm HST

A company called Kuokoa Inc. has been formed for the purpose of buying all the shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries and converting the publicly traded company into a private concern.

Honolulu-based Hawaiian Electric Industries is the holding company for American Savings Bank, Hawaiian Electric Co. on Oahu, Maui Electric Co. on Maui and Hawaii Electric and Light Co. on the Big Island.

If successful, Kuokoa CEO Roald Marth said the company would sell American Savings Bank.

Kuokoa is being led by Chairman Richard Ha, who is owner of Hamakua Springs Country Farms on the Big Island; President Ted Peck, who has resigned his position as the state’s energy administrator; and CEO Marth, who is a venture capitalist with an international reputation. Peck’s last day as Hawaii’s energy administrator is Friday.

Read more: Kuokoa wants to buy HECO’s parent; it would sell American Savings | Pacific Business News

Government

Richard Applying for Senate Seat

4 Comments

There’s some news around here.

With our new governor Neil Abercrombie having just tapped Senator Russell Kokubun for his new cabinet, that state senate seat is available – and Richard is putting his name in for it.

“It’s an appointed position, so I won’t have to shake hands and kiss babies,” says Richard.

Joking aside, though, he is serious about it. We had a conversation about it, and I share it here:

Leslie: How does this work? What is the process?

Richard: The Democratic party will send up three names from Senator Kokubun’s district for the governor’s consideration. If I’m lucky, I make one of those three. The governor makes the appointment.

There will be a bunch of folks applying, so we’ll just see how it turns out. I’ve thought about it and I’ve talked to June and the rest of the family, and for all of us this feels like something we can do.

Leslie: It’s interesting that you say something “we” can do.

Richard: You know, we work as a family, and as a team. Everyone needs to feel comfortable, like they could do their part at the farm if I’m not there as often. Do I need to be there? Do they feel okay about it? We have to do this as a family. Everybody stepped up and said, “We can do it, we can handle.” I’m really grateful to June and the rest of the family.

Leslie: What sort of feedback are you getting?

Richard: It’s kind of surprising how much support I’ve received, from so many people. It’s overwhelming, actually. It’s humbling.

Leslie: How did you decide to do this?

Richard: Really, it’s my workers. They want more for their family, and their kids. More than being a banana farmer, and I can understand that. I empathize with that. Everybody wants better for their family.

You know, the world is changing because of this oil thing. It’s so clear to me. It’s much more serious than most of us know. So this is a real important time. If it wasn’t this particular time in history, I wouldn’t do it. It’s not about being a politician.

It’s so very important we cope in the best possible way. And I can tell you about this as it applies to Hawaiian culture. A lot of the dissatisfaction in modern Hawaiian history has to do with the culture giving giving giving and the economy taking taking taking. At some point, people start to say, Enough is enough.

We’re at the point in history that if we make the right decision – in terms of getting away from oil and using our geothermal resource – the economy can give give give and the culture can receive receive receive.

We really don’t have much time to accomplish what we need to accomplish. That’s what is driving me to go and shape policy.

We can guide policy to take us to a place where we can achieve these goals. It is pretty clear what we’ve got to do. Not that it’s easy, but we have to do it. And what is really exciting is that there’s a possibility of accomplishing this for our future generations.

I’m not stressed about not knowing everything. I’m a quick learner. There’s no doubt in my mind that I can learn all the stuff I need to learn, fast. I’m supremely confident. I guess it has to do with, Am I willing to do it? I am.

Leslie: What else are you thinking about?

Richard: One of the most important things about being a senator is being on O‘ahu and being able to educate people on the stuff I know about it. It can influence policy, if people know the issues. I know farming, and I know energy.

It would be kind of novel to have an actual farmer there, I believe. If I think about the whole Senate and House, I don’t know of a true farmer there. I would be a real farmer talking about food security. I think that’s kind of important.

If we plan to plant stuff, to make liquid energy, well, I know the farming end of it. There aren’t very many times that the farmer has an opportunity to say what the considerations are from the farming side. For example, what is the consequence of planting thousands of acres to make biofuels? How much water, what kind of land, what about rain and muddiness and steep slopes? – the really practical things that farmers know about.

Leslie: So, farming, energy….

Richard: It’s clear to me what my focus would be. I would love to be on a committee that has to do with ag, water, Hawaiian affairs or energy. Other things I can learn, but those things I know about. I definitely know about those.

One ability I have is to break down complex subjects into their simple components. That’s what I do naturally. That’s what I like to do, and it’s what I do.

And beyond that, this is not rocket science we’re talking about. We’re talking about things that happen to people. The final effect of everything you do is asking yourself what is going to happen to real people. Are we getting so complex that we get lost in the doing and we forget what actually happens on the ground? For me, it’s not very complex.

Peak Oil

Smithsonian magazine on Peak Oil

We came across this short article at Smithsonian magazine’s science blog about Peak Oil, and realized it is a very good example of how mainstream these issues are.

Richard agreed that Smithsonian takes a very clear, well-balanced look at just what Peak Oil means.

…Geologist M. King Hubbert developed the concept of peak oil back in the 1950s, and he later predicted that it would occur around 1995 to 2000 (he wasn’t expecting the energy crisis in the 1970s, when production dipped). Peak oil forecasts have varied wildly, with some experts arguing that it won’t be a problem anytime soon and others predicting the peak within a decade. This is the trouble with predicting the future. You won’t see peak oil until it has passed.

Well, last week, the International Energy Agency, which only two years ago was predicting a slow and steady increase in oil production, said that the peak has passed, and that oil production topped out in 2006 (Hubbert got it pretty close, apparently). The decline will be gradual, at least, they say, with production plateauing for a decade or two, but there are complicating factors, like increased demand from China….

Read the whole article here

Adopt-a-Class, Community, Education

Adopt-A-Class, Year 4!

It’s the start of a new school year, and we are kicking off our fourth annual Adopt-A-Class project. This is where we ask if you’ll give a little bit to help students at Keaukaha Elementary School take field trips.

Why Keaukaha Elementary? Early on, when Richard became interested in the Thirty Meter Telescope, at that time “possibly slated” for Mauna Kea, he noted that the multi-million dollar telescopes atop the mountain sacred to many Hawaiians were not benefiting the Hawaiian community at all.

He focused in on Keaukaha as one of our most Hawaiian communities. He learned that students at the elementary school there only took walking field trips to sites near their school, due to lack of funding. He and his friend Duane Kanuha decided to ask the community to help.

***
It’s been four years since then, and truly amazing things are happening at Keaukaha Elementary School these days.

For a very long time, it was near the bottom of the list in all rankings and achievement. And when the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program started, Keaukaha Elementary was one of the first in the state to be put on corrective action – after what its principal Lehua Veincent describes as “years of struggling to meet state standards.”

Under his leadership and during his first two years as principal, the school met federal standards in 2007 and 2008, and in 2008 it was one of seven schools in the state to exit restructuring status under NCLB.

Kumu Lehua has had a phenomenal impact on Keaukaha. (If you know him, you won’t be surprised to hear that he’s quick to acknowledge the importance of his “dedicated and committed faculty and staff, and the collaboration with community and business partners”).

To Kumu Lehua, though, this whole topic is about so much more than merely academics. He talks about the change in behaviors and attitudes – social aspects that are not accounted for under NCLB.

“When we see 550 people come to our Open House, as they did two weeks ago, that’s powerful,” he says. “When we have 15 kupunas that come and have our children go and sit on lauhala mats and listen to our stories of Keaukaha, that’s powerful. When we’re able to take the entire school, 350 students, and have them chant and hula in unison, that’s powerful. Those are the things that set us apart from everyone else. They are our uniqueness, our spirit.”

He said they always have to remember the school’s mission: “That our children are proud of who they are and where they come from.”

***

In 2007, we did our first Adopt-A-Class campaign, and met our goal of raising enough for every class at the school to take one field trip both semesters. The cost per field trip per class is about $600 (that’s for bus, admissions, etc.); classes sometimes find ways to use that amount to take more than one field trip per semester.

Students have taken their huaka‘i, their field trips, to Hamakua Springs Country Farms, Waipi‘o Valley, Mauna Kea, ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center and more. “Our 4th graders went up to Mo‘okini Heiau and spent a whole day there,” says Kumu Lehua, “learning the whole historical perspective of why it exists. It was a wonderful day for them.” See the links above for some past stories we’ve done about the kids’ excursions. Here are some of the students’ thank you notes.

Kumu Lehua says what’s important about the Adopt-A-Class program is taking the learning into other places where some of the skills and concepts they learn about in class are more easily visible, in a setting that has been discussed, learned about. “That’s where the application becomes a little more real,” he says. “Everything is so focused on reading and math, but not necessarily making connections between those skills and the outside.”

He says that Adopt-A-Class has brought about a lot of other opportunities for the school.

“People hear about Adopt-A-Class and they donate,” he says. “They tell other people, and people tell people, and you have a slew of people wanting to help, whether it’s with snacks, events, opportunities.”

***

These days the school philosophy centers on “Maoli Keaukaha,” the spirit of Keaukaha. Everything they do, explains Kumu Lehua, ties into one of five key points that make up the spirit and uniqueness of Keaukaha – genealogy, history, place, language and traditional practices.

“It’s the spirit of Keaukaha,” he says. “It’s what you cannot find anywhere else.”

***

Can you adopt a class? You or your company can donate $100 toward the adoption of one class (it gets grouped with other donations), or $600 supports the whole class. Your donation is tax-deductible and 100 percent goes to the school.

See the Hamakua Springs website for more details and how to donate.

Mahalo.

Geothermal, Schools, Science

Robotics/Micro Mechanisms on the Big Island

The first Hawaii International Micro Robot Conference and Tournament will be held at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo from July 16 through 19, 2010.

Art Kimura, Education Specialist for the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium at UH Manoa, says the conference is primarily to begin a discussion on how Big Island can benefit through micro mechanisms.

“Whether for R&D,” he says, “for actual production, for prototyping, partnerships and relevant applications including medical, agriculture, security, etc. We are hoping this will be a catalyst for further interest in what would be a clean industry (since they are micro devices, the facilities are not large).”

Richard is very interested in this, and says that from a business perspective he can see micro manufacturing taking off on the Big Island where geothermal electricity would be cheap.

“Because it is small by volume,” he says, “freight cost would not a large factor. The higher the input cost of electricity, the more competitive we become.”

“This is a field where we could become world leaders,” he says.

Also, the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo is hosting the 9th Annual ROV Competition on June 24-26, 2010. This video describes the international student underwater robotics competition.

Hilo is the perfect location for the competition because this year’s theme is underwater volcanoes. The event will be held at the Olympic-sized outdoor swimming pool at UH Hilo’s Student Life Center.

About 60 teams from all over the world are participating, including five from Hawaii:
•    Kapiolani Community College, Honolulu
•    Kealakehe Intermediate School, Kailua-Kona
•    Moanalua High School, Honolulu
•    Highlands Intermediate School, Pearl City
•    Hilo High School, Hilo

ROVs are remotely operated vehicles, also known as underwater robots or robot submersibles. They’ve been in the news a lot lately because they’re a critical tool in the attempts to manage the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Skilled ROV engineers and operators are needed in many marine technology industries that have importance in Hawaii, not just the oil and gas industry.

And they also have applications in science and exploration. For example: an ROV was used to explore the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, and an ROV was used to discover the location of the sunken Titanic.

The competition helps students develop the technology, piloting and teamwork skills needed to design, build and operate an ROV in a “real-world” setting and exposes them to marine technology careers. And if they decide working on ROVs isn’t right for them, they’ve still developed science, technology, engineering, math and teamwork skills that will be invaluable in any field.

The International Student ROV Competition is organized by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) center in Monterey, California.

Here is an email from Art Kimura about the 20th annual Future Flight Hawaii program:

From: Art Kimura

Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2010 2:46 PM

Subject: inspiring…the 20th annual Future Flight Hawaii program… misson complete

Aloha; Rene and I want to thank you all for being part of our 20 year journey….conceived and executed by a group of brave, perhaps naive on our part, 18 teachers in 1991, we are in awe of the teachers we have been privileged to work with.  We should remember our first “boss,” George Mead,
DBED Office of Space Industry, who trusted us to initiate this program, and to Patti Cook who introduced us to the opportunity.

Truth be told, the program was to have ended some 15 years ago when the Office of Space Industry was shut down; through being adopted by the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium (mahalo to all at Spaced Grant…Dr. Luke Flynn, Dr. Jeff Taylor, Dr. Peter Mouginis-Mark, Marcia Sistoso, Eric Pilger, Linda Martel, Lorna Ramiscal and others), we have managed to continue the program…significantly changed from the week long and weekend residential
programs, these family engagement programs continue to be among the most requested programs to be sure.  We thank the University of Hawaii at Hilo (Chancellor Rose Tseng, and the UHH Conference Center) which provided the facilities and services in the initial years before the program moved to the Kilauea Military Camp, then expanded to Maui (thanks to Betty Brask), Kauai (thanks to Cheryl Shintani) and Oahu.  NASA specialists including Tom Gates, Greg Vogt, Cheick Diarra, Ota Lutz, Wayne Lee, David Seidel and others, HIGP scientists (Luke, Jeff, Scott Rowland and others), Gemini Telescope specialists (Peter Michaud, Janice Harvey), the UH College of Engineering,
and many other community specialists and resources have contributed to the program.  We thank Creative Arts Hawaii for their long time support in designing the T shirts, bags and other materials that we have provided to the over 8,500 participants.

We have been honored to have worked with over 175 teachers as part of our mission control team, the summer institutes that we offered for credit and volunteers….they are truly educators with the right stuff.

How long do we continue is a frequently asked question….the initial goal of 10 years has long passed…then more recently, a personal goal was to have one of our grandchildren attend (oldest will not qualify for another
2 years)…but Morgan Nakamura who attended as a 4th grade student from Mililani in our first year, 1991, and who has been teaching business education at Pearl City High School (and is to be a state CTE resource teacher this fall), asked if we could continue the program for another 10
years…why? Morgan is to be married this October (Morgan brought her fiancee to the program and he passed the FF board of review) and she hopes her child will be able to attend.  So old folks like Rene/I will have to pull out our walking canes or better, pass the torch to a new generation, to continue it into the future. With NASA’s vision of exploration changing under President Obama (no return to the moon), we will have to come up with new contextual themes to be sure.

We are grateful to you all for the engaging and creative lessons; we are always in awe of seeing how the lessons unfold under your imagination…..the paper roller coasters put the parents and children to work until late at night and there were amazing results on Sunday to be sure (thanks to Wendell, Arlene and Clyde)….the children surely enjoyed the special solar cooked snacks made in their own solar ovens (thanks to Glenn, Sylvia and Jan) ….the extensive mineral collection from Roger’s personal treasure provide a college level experience for all (thanks to Roger and Matt)….the worm decomposers modules were so engaging that even the squeamish were holding worms (of course Wendi’s Connor told me that his mother would scream at the worms)…we hope the new annelid family members will be part of Earth’s renewal and recycling (thanks to Colleen for drilling all the holes in the bins, to Cyndi for bringing your own annelid collection, and to Donna and Andrea), the planes were flying in the hall ways after the lessons on flight by Dale and Lani, you could drink contaminated liquids after the filtering of the liquids by Carole, Morgan and Joann, the polymer module added to their knowledge of how useful these materials are (thanks to Arlene, Wendell, Clyde) and students learned about leaves through the leaf identification lessons and fresh and dried leaves (thanks to Sylvia, Jan and Glenn).

We were so excited to see the debut of the newest Princess Teriyaki (how many have we had over the years)….Claire Sakata, daughter of Dennis, who spent two years in Japan in the JET program, and will be student teaching at Kapalama Elementary this fall, introduced her study of Japanese magic in such a dramatic way…Claire, please reserve October 16 to be on stage with Roger and Dale at the Astronaut Lacy Veach Day science magic program. The Space Science Magic brought back many memories of demonstrations from years past and the videos brought by Randal, Dennis and Dennis were amazing as well.  Thanks to everyone for your hard work.

Randal Lau has generously spent extraordinary time to post the 2010 graduation videos and other videos from our Future Flight archive on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/boar59/FutureFlightHawaiiVideos?authkey=Gv1sRgCK
fyoaj4naDWYQ#

We hope it will provide everyone with great memories from this and from past years.

We are appreciative for the certificates of recognition from the State Senate presented by Senator Norman Sakamoto to Dr. Flynn, and from Governor Lingle, presented by Dr. Taylor, honors that reflect the long term commitment of all of the teachers and volunteers to develop creative and engaging lessons for the participants.

Future Flight Hawaii blasts off on our 21st annual program in June 2011 with an International Mission to Mars program.

We hope you will join us at:

July 17, 2010: Imiloa Astronomy Center, 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.; public event for the 1st Hawaii Micro Robot Conference and Tournament: origami presentation by Hidenori Ishihara, robotics Professor, Kagawa University,
Shikoku, Japan, and bipedal robot demonstrations by Risa Sato, student at Shizuoka High School, winner of 2009 Bipedal robot competition at Nagoya University, and Hideaki Matsutani, technical education instructor, Meinan
Technical High School, Nagoya.

1st Children and Youth Day BrushBot tournament, October 3, 2010, State Capitol auditorium (if your child’s school wants to enter a team, please have the teacher contact us for workshop information and registration);
mahalo to Senator Chun-Oakland for the invitation.
*additional brushbot tournament to be hosted on the Big Island

9th annual Astronaut Lacy Veach Day of Discovery, October 16, 2010, Punahou School (http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/Day-of-discovery/)
*keynote speaker: Kalepa Babayan, master navigator; content specialist, 

Imiloa Astronomy Center…and the expanded Future Flight Weird Science team (Dale, Roger…and Claire)

11th annual Astronaut Ellison Onizuka Science Day, January 22, 2011, University of Hawaii at Hilo
(http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/OnizukaDay/)

VEX robotics tournaments: http://www.hawaiiroc.org/ October 2, 2010: Maui County Fair (Baldwin High School gym) November 11, 2010: Iolani School gym November 20, 2010: Imiloa Astronomy Center December 3-4, 2010: Hawaii Convention Center 

*3 other Oahu VEX tournaments to be scheduled

If you would like volunteer at these robotics or the Onizuka or Veach Day programs, please let us know.

Thank you again for being a part of our 20th annual program…we hope the rest of the summer provides time for relaxation and for family and friends to gather.  It truly was a joy to work with you …. Art and Rene

Art and Rene Kimura
Future Flight Hawaii
Hawaii Space Grant Consortium

Home


phone (808) 934-7261

Current Affairs, Government, Renewable Energy Sources

Electric Car Plant Coming to Oahu

Did you see this article in the Honolulu Advertiser on Friday?

Hawaii chosen as manufacturing site for electric mini-cars
S. Korea automaker to build, sell vehicles here, bringing up to 400 jobs

By Greg Wiles
Advertiser Staff Writer

A South Korea-based company has committed to build a $200 million assembly plant on O’ahu that would turn out two-seat electric cars and other vehicles and employ as many as 400 people.

CT&T Co. said it has narrowed its search to four sites on which to build a 100,000-square-foot plant from which it would also sell its elfin vehicles, which are mostly targeted at short jaunts on city and neighborhood streets.

The company and state officials announced the plans yesterday flanked by a dozen of the cars at the state Capitol. Later they signed an agreement pledging to cooperate on meeting each other’s goals….(Click here to read more)

Sustainability, Web/Tech

There’s ‘Aina’ in ‘Sust-aina-ble’

1 Comment

I’ve been hearing about this interesting Facebook page called Abundance – Hawaiian Sust_AINA_ble lifestyle. You might consider joining it. (If you cannot get that link, search the page’s name at Facebook).

Here’s the page’s description:

E komo mai (Welcome!) Join us as we find the best markets, farms, food and sustainable life in Hawai’i Island aka The Big Island of Hawai’i.

There are great articles, videos, notes about “green” things happening on the Big Island, and a real sense of community is forming there, too. I’m going to follow along. See you there!

Geothermal, Peak Oil

Richard on ‘Geothermal & Peak Oil’ Today

Richard will be speaking at a Sierra Club meeting today.

From Big Island Chronicle:

Richard Ha will speak about “Geothermal and Peak Oil” at a Sierra Club meeting Wednesday, April 28, 2010, at the Ola’a Community Center in Kea’au (across from McDonalds). A potluck at 5:30 p.m. will precede the meeting slated for 6 p.m. Ha had the large banana farm in the Kea’au area before becoming the Hamakua tomato farm producer he is today….(read more)

If you’ve read this blog before, you know that geothermal and peak oil are topics Richard feels strongly about and has been concerned about for a long time.

“I happen to believe  the world has changed and that we need to make the right energy choices for future generations,” he said. “Geothermal is proven technology, it does not depend on subsidies to make it work, it’s cheap, it doesn’t emit greenhouse gases and it is a resource for the people of Hawai‘i.”

Community, Web/Tech

Check Out Honolulu’s Civil Beat

Do you know about Pierre Omidyar’s new online news organization out of Honolulu? It’s called Civil Beat, and it just went online this week.

It’s a whole different approach to news, and it’s really interesting. From Editor John Temple’s introductory remarks:

A New Approach to Journalism

By John Temple

 (photo: Randy Ching & Mark Quezada/Civil Beat)

Welcome to Civil Beat. We’re glad you decided to join us.

I’d like to tell you about the journalism you can expect to find here
from our team of reporter-hosts. It’s different. And I’m excited to
begin talking with you about it before we start
publishing articles on May 4.

We start this news service with the belief that we’re here to serve
you. That means our daily work is to ask the important questions
citizens might have in the face of the complex issues facing our
community. And to answer them in a way that helps members reach an
informed opinion, based on our reporting and the discussion that will
take place as we together create the new civic
square.

You’ll find that our initial coverage is centered around five
fundamental beats: Hawaii, Honolulu, Education, Land and Money. For each
of these coverage areas, we have identified critical issues – and now
that you’re here we hope you’ll help us sharpen our focus.

…

How will we do this to best serve you? First, you’ll be part of the
process. You might have noticed that we’ve opened the doors to this new civic square without putting up any news articles. That’s different – a news service without news, at least initially. It’s intentional. We want to begin by talking with you about what we’re doing, to hear what you want from us and what you think we should be asking. We believe
conversation and civil debate with our reporter-hosts and with other
members is central to what will make Civil Beat valuable. And we want
you to see that the core of our service isn’t the article itself. Of
course, incisive news reporting soon will be an important part of what
we offer. But at the heart of our service are pages dedicated to
providing you context and understanding about the issues you need to
know about. These “topic pages” are living pages. They’ll grow over
time, with your help. We know you’re busy and that our job is to help
make it easy for you to learn about and truly understand what’s going
on, and what you might be able to do about it. With our approach, you
should be able to find the background you need when you want it, without having to surf thousands of pages of documents or make numerous phone calls to unearth what should be readily available to you. (Read more)

I love that they are thinking differently, and providing “topic pages” that lay out background and context about the issues they then report about, and that there will be conversation.

How will they make money? It’s by membership. Anyone can roam around the site, but to delve more deeply into the content you’ll need to be a member. Right now they are offering a discount on the first month’s membership. Normally it’s $19.99/month, but if you sign up now you get the first month for $4.99. I’m going to join.

Community, Eating Locally

Big Island Farmers Markets, CSAs & Community Gardens

1 Comment

Sonia Martinez, of Sonia Tastes Hawai‘i, has put together a great resource over at the Hawaii Homegrown Food Network — it’s a list of the 30 or so farmers markets on the Big Island as well as CSAs and community gardens.

CSAs are Community Supported Agriculture, a way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.

Her very thorough list of Farmers Markets and CSAs is here.