Category Archives: Peak Oil

Biofuel, Geothermal, Peak Oil

HEI’s Flurry of Announcements

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I hear there’s somebody out there investigating me; making phone calls and asking questions about me and such.

To that person: Please feel free to call me directly. There’s nothing to hide and I’d be happy to answer any of your questions. Anybody with questions, in fact, I invite you to call me. My cell number is 808 960-1057.

Maybe what we should be investigating is what’s going on over at Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI).

Since it was announced that Ku‘oko‘a is attempting to buy HEI in order to retire its old, oil-fired plants, the electric utility has issued a flurry of announcements:

1. The Star Advertiser reported an HEI deal with a large, wind farm operation. But it will not result in any oil-fired plants being shut down.

2. It was announced that there will be a large biofuel operation in Ka‘u on the Big Island. Its purpose will be to provide liquid fuel for HECO’s oil-fired plants.

But the EPA just announced that it was revising its 2011 estimate of cellulosic biofuels from 250 million gallons down to only to 6.5 million gallons. All the millions and millions of dollars that have been spent? They have not resulted in a single industrial-scaled production plant.

Maybe those folks in Ka‘u will be the first in the entire U.S. to be successful. We are rooting for them. But they are not farmers; they say they may grow sorghum or guinea grass. Farmers just shake their heads at that.

The real question is, How much will it cost Big Island citizens to subsidize this crop? And for how long would we be subsidizing it?

3. Maybe HEI will soon announce that the 8 MW geothermal contract is done. I thought it would have been done a year ago.

HEI should be putting more geothermal on line faster, rather than slower. They should be aggressively bringing more geothermal on line. They’re wasting valuable time. How come we’ve got this geothermal resource but are not using more of it? We know that if we use more of that cheap geothermal resource, it will really benefit us here in Hawai‘i.

HEI says they are for geothermal, but we know they truly are not, because they cannot shut down their oil-fired plant. They’re trying to make us believe they can and will, but they cannot, because they have to keep their stock value high for shareholders.

It’s why we’re looking for a new model.

Geothermal is the least expensive of all the base power alternatives for electricity, and its costs will be stable for as far to the future as we can see – unlike oil and biofuels, the costs of which will continue to go up.

Geothermal, Peak Oil, Television, Video

Richard Explains On Video Re: Kuokoa Takeover Of HEI

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This video talks about why we, as Kuokoa, are buying HEI: It is to retool HEI, so the utility can help us all cope in the future. I filmed it for Eco TV a few days ago. It’s in four parts, each 4 or 5 minutes long.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

This video will be going out on the social media circuit and on mainstream TV.

Although some folks are attacking “the messenger,” the average person we talk to says, “It’s about time something is done.”

We are serious! Our data shows that this will work, and the higher oil prices climb, the better it will work.

This is about taking care of everyone. The result will be to lower electricity costs across the state, keep some money in our pockets as prices skyrocket everywhere else, and to strengthen the aloha spirit. For that is what we will need to help us cope with an uncertain future.

Peak Oil

Kuokoa Wants to Buy Hawaiian Electric Industries

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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

Electric Cars, Geothermal, Peak Oil

Planning For The Future

From Green Car Congress (blog subtitle: Energy, Technologies, Issues and Policies for Sustainable Mobility):

Seoul Metropolitan Government has set a goal of putting a total of 120,000 electric vehicles in use in the city by 2020, which will account for 50% of all public transport vehicles, 10% of sedans and 1% of trucks and vans. Read the rest

Governments and individuals around the world are planning for a post-Peak Oil economy.

Here in Hawai‘i, geothermal – Hawai‘i’s indigenous resource – is a gift to the Hawaiian people. It is proven technology, and it can lower and stabilize electric rates for the folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

Peak Oil

The Perfect Trade

When the stock market has it dead wrong, misprices assets and you can take advantage, that’s the perfect trade. Listen to this Financial Sense audio to find out how.

Based on the flood of information this year describing the peaking of oil supplies, there is no doubt that oil supplies are going to drop and keep on dropping. Wouldn’t you expect that the price of oil five years out would be much higher than today’s price?

Right now, oil for next December (2011) is priced at $91.60. And we know that oil supplies will get tighter. Right? Wouldn’t you expect higher prices in the future?

Then how come the price for oil in December 2015 is predicted at $90.26? That’s a dollar and thirty four cents cheaper than the price predicted for December 2011.

The market is telling us that oil is going to be cheaper in the future. Huh? Where can I bet against that?

Listen to the audio.

Biofuel, Geothermal, Peak Oil

Stocking Up On Toilet Paper

What will happen when we hit Peak Oil? Probably the same thing that happens every time we hear about a dock strike: People will run out and buy three shopping carts of toilet paper.

I think that when we realize world oil supplies are starting to decline, never to recover, prices will become very volatile. Lloyds of London recently published a white paper that warns of $200 oil by 2013.

Inexpensive geothermal for electricity is something that makes sense.

Biofuels-to-electricity is not a good idea. One would have to pay a steep premium to get farmers to grow biofuels.

Next time you hear or see folks talking up biofuels, count the number of farmers in the room. Farmers know the numbers do not come out. This is not rocket science; just plain old common sense.

From the Post Carbon Institute:

It’s Official: The Economy Is Set To Starve

Posted Nov 24, 2010 by Chris Martenson

Part I: It’s the End of the Oil As We Know It…

Once a year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) releases its World Energy Outlook (WEO), and it’s our tradition here at ChrisMartenson.com to review it.  A lot of articles have already been written on the WEO 2010 report, and I don’t wish to tread an already well-worn path, but the subject is just too important to leave relegate to a single week of attention. 

Because some people will only read the first two paragraphs, let me get a couple of conclusions out right up front.  You need to pay close attention to Peak Oil, and you need to begin adjusting, because it has already happened.  The first conclusion is mine; the second belongs to the IEA. 

Okay, it’s not quite as simple as that; there are a few complexities involved that require us to dig a bit deeper and to be sure our terms and definitions are clear so that we are talking about the same things. Read the rest

Biofuel, Geothermal, Peak Oil

California’s New Move Re: ‘Climate Law’

California has just adopted a “cap-and-trade” system to cap greenhouse gases.
Sooner or later, Hawai‘i will also need to address the problem of the greenhouse gases emitted by our electric utilities. They emit greenhouse gases whether they burn fossil fuel or biofuel.
Geothermal power emits no greenhouse gases.

California Scheduled To Adopt Cap-And-Trade Rules

By Cassandra Sweet Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES  
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)-California regulators are scheduled Thursday to adopt the nation’s first large-scale cap-and-trade program for greenhouse-gas emissions as part of the state’s four-year-old climate law. 

Under the proposed rules, scheduled to start in 2012, the state Air Resources Board would place a limit, or cap, on greenhouse-gas emissions for the state that would decline over time. Power plants, refineries and other industrial facilities that emit carbon dioxide and can’t cut their emissions by the required amount could obtain pollution allowances from the state or buy them from other emitters with excess allowances…. Read the rest here
Geothermal, Peak Oil

Peak Oil Is Here; See This Video Overview

The International Energy Association, in their World Energy Outlook for 2010, says Peak Oil has already happened.

If you don’t have a good grasp on what Peak Oil is – or even if you do – here’s a great video for you to watch. It’s one that puts Peak Oil into context very nicely.

This video is just one chapter of a series of videos making up The Crash Course by Chris Martenson, and I highly recommend the whole series. They are available to watch on YouTube.

Watch this video, and then know that here on the Big Island we have the possibility of using geothermal as our source of “base power.” It is cheap, proven technology and easy on the environment. And we have it in abundance here.

Chris Martenson is no fan of hydrogen because he assumes hydrogen will come from depleting sources of input – but cheap electricity from geothermal is an exception. We can make hydrogen using cheap “off peak” electricity and run the electricity through water to get the hydrogen. We can use the hydrogen as is.

Or we can combine it with nitrogen from air to make NH3, which is more efficient an energy carrier than H2 by 30 percent.

Air, water and geothermal are all here on the Big Island in abundance. The less we depend on importing energy, the better we will make it for future generations.

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

Peak Oil

Chris Martenson Interview: Prepare While There Is Time

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Chris Martenson was one of the more influential speakers I heard at the Peak Oil conference last month in Washington, D.C. Take a look at this interview with him from the Energy Bulletin.

Interview with Chris Martenson: “Prepare for peak oil while there is time.”

 by Alexander Ac

ASPO peak oil conference held in Washington was an unique opportunity to meet Dr. Chris Martenson. Chris is devoted to finances, economics, energy and environment and connects together these separate fields. He says that the next 20 years will be very different from the last 20 years. Peak oil “will change everything” and there is never too soon for preparations. The key is resilience, self-dependency and versatility. He is an optimist and believes that many people will survive peak oil happily – if they prepare themselves. As all people researching peak oil and its impacts, he advises people to get out of debt.

Read the full interview here