This article just ran in West Hawaii Today, and Richard called it an “eloquent argument for common sense and practicality.”
Usually what I do here is reprint the first paragraph or so, and then affix a link so you can click over to read the rest.
But I found it amazingly difficult to excerpt this opinion article. It’s necessary so that we don’t impinge on the copyright, but it’s such a powerful article, every line of it, that it was truly hard to try to select just a bit of it.
So instead, here are a few thoughts pulled from different parts of the article that I hope will encourage you to go and read the whole thing.
“As explorers, Hawaiians utilized island resources to sustain their communities….They ventured to Mauna Kea, reshaped the environment by quarrying rock, left behind evidence of their work, and took materials off the mountain to serve their communities, with the full consent and in the presence of their gods.”
“I firmly believe the highest level of desecration rests in actions that remove the opportunity and choices from the kind of future our youth can own.”
“When it is completed, the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea will with greater accuracy and speed, vastly increase the capacity for the kind of scientific research vital to the quest for mankind’s future. It takes place on a sacred mountain; remains consistent with the work of our ancestral forebears; and is done to the benefit of tomorrow’s generations, here in Hawaii, and across the globe.”
OHA is contemplating investing in geothermal. I am in favor of that, for the reasons that I mention below.
I sent the following testimony to OHA:
***
Subject: OHA testimony re: Huena Power Co/IDG
April 17, 2013
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
711 Kapiolani St.
Honolulu, HI 96813
Aloha Chair Machado and Board members of OHA:
The Geothermal working group report, which Wallace Ishibashi and I co-chaired, recommended that geothermal be the primary base power for the Big Island. OHA was represented on the working group by trustee Robert Lindsey.
I believe that OHA should participate in geothermal development because it is an income source for OHA to provide services to the Hawaiian people. And it can influence the course of our people’s history.
Geothermal-generated electricity is proven technology, affordable and environmentally benign. The Big Island is expected to be over the “hot spot” for 500,000 to a million years so its price is expected to be stable.
The Pahoa School Complex in Puna, at 89%, has the highest number of students in the State who participate in the free/reduced school lunch program. Participation is related to family income. The Big Island has had electricity rates 25% higher than O‘ahu’s for as long as anyone can remember. So a large portion of the school budget, that should go to education, goes instead to pay for electricity. Yet the best predictor of family income is education. A lower electricity rate, generated by geothermal, will have a direct effect on education. And if OHA, through its influence, emphasizes education in the community, there will be even more positive results.
Rising electricity rates act like a giant regressive tax. The folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder are affected disproportionately. Those who can leave the grid, leave. Those who cannot leave end up paying more for the grid. Too often those folks will be Hawaiians.
Hawaiians should be able to live in their own land. Yet there are more Hawaiians living outside of the State, because they needed to move elsewhere to find jobs to raise their families. Exporting our children is the same as losing our land. OHA is in a position to drive the agenda so Hawaiians can afford to live at home.
During the development of the Geothermal Working Group report, Rockne Freitas arranged a meeting with Carl Bonham, Executive Director of the University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization (UHERO), and some staff.
I asked Dr. Bonham two key questions: “Is it fair to say that if the Big Island were to rely on geothermal energy for its primary base power as oil prices rises, shouldn’t we become more competitive to the rest of the world?” He said that was fair to say.
I asked: “Then is it fair to say that our standard of living would rise?” He said: “Yes.”
I am a farmer on the Hamakua coast with family ties — Kamahele — in lower Puna. I farmed bananas at Koa‘e in the late 70s and early 80s. I have been to five Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) conferences. I went to learn and to position my business for the future. I found that the world has been using two and three times the amount of oil than it has been finding for more than 30 years and that trend continues. The price of oil has quadrupled in the last 10 years.
Until the first ASPO conference, I was just minding my own business, being a banana farmer. But what I learned became my kuleana. I did not ask for it.
Until last year, when Kamehameha Schools sent Giorgio Calderone and Jason Jeremiah and Noe Kalipi went to the conference, I was the only person from Hawai‘i to attend. The subjects were always data driven and conclusions could be duplicated.
We have the resources here to dodge the bullet. We need to drive a clear agenda for the benefit of all the people, not just a few.
One of the controversial issues in the Puna district is H2S gas. I went to Iceland and sat in the Blue Lagoon, where a geothermal plant within a quarter mile emits geothermal steam into the atmosphere. Millions of tourists visit the Blue Lagoon for health purposes.
There are small geothermal wells within the city that are used to heat the residences and businesses. If you did not know what to look for, you wouldn’t even know they were there. I walked by and touched the walls.
A long term study of the effects of H2S on people who suffer from asthma was just completed. It was done in Rotorua. They found no correlation of asthma to daily ambient H2S levels of 20,000 parts per billion over a three-year period. The study indicated that there might be a beneficial effect because it relaxes the smooth muscles. See link above.
The human nose can detect levels of H2S at incredibly low levels: 5 parts per billion. The Department of Health requires reporting when levels exceed 25 parts per billion. The Rotorua study was done for three years at average levels that were 20,000 parts per billion. OSHA allows geothermal plant workers to work in a 10,000 parts per billion environment for 8 hours per day without a mask.
Wallace Ishibashi and I went to the Philippines with the delegation that Mayor Kenoi put together. We visited a geothermal plant that sat on a volcano that last erupted 100,000 years ago. Mauna Kea last erupted 4,000 years ago. We may have more resources than we know.
The Phillipines and Hawai‘i started geothermal exploration at the same time. They now have in excess of 1,200MW, while we have 38MW. We are so far behind them, a supposedly Third World country, that it is embarrassing.
OHA is in a unique position to be able to influence the future. It is as if we are getting ready to duplicate that first voyage from the south so many years ago. It’s not whether or not we are going. It’s who should go, and what should we put in the canoes? Mai‘a maoli? Popoulu? What else?
Richard Ha
President, Mauna Kea Banana Company
I am a member of the Hawaii Clean Energy Steering Committee, Board of Agriculture and farmer for 35 years.
Big news! The State Board of Land and Natural Resources has just granted the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) a permit to build and operate its observatory on Mauna Kea. Read more at Hawaii 24/7.
We ran the following article here on the blog back in July 2009, at a much earlier phase of this project. It really explains it all and I’d like to share it with you again:
TMT Selects Mauna Kea, Promises Big Island $50 Million For Education
Although I’ve been working on this project for almost three years now, I was not prepared for the emotional rush that came when Henry Yang, president of the TMT, called to tell me of the decision.
All I could think about was how this would help our people launch their kids into the middle class. All that most of us want is for our kids to do a little better than we did.
The median family income in Hawai‘i is around $56,000. Here on the Big Island, it is $46,000. But on the east side of the Big Island, the median family income is in the mid-$30,000s. And in some communities it is in the low-$30,000s.
We all know that low family income is sometimes associated with social problems. And Hawaiian families occupy the lowest rungs on the family income ladder.
Education is directly related to family income. The more education, the higher the family income. Education is the great equalizer.
The Thirty Meter Telescope folks have pledged $1 million dollars annually for 50 years, which will be administered by carefully selected community members, primarily for K-12 education.
We all know that many of our students who enter college fail, or lower their aspirations, because they are not prepared to succeed. We want this TMT fund to prepare students to succeed.
So if we are truly interested in elevating our people and taking them away from drug problems, abusive relationships and other social ills, then we must help parents to launch their kids into the middle class. For those who are prepared to succeed, the sky is the limit.
My pop influenced me at an early age. When I was 10 years old, he inspired me with the attitude of “Not, no can. CAN!” So I know the value of influencing elementary school kids. They are very impressionable, and with the right environment and the right teachers, anything is possible.
This is why we created the Adopt-A-Class project. Sometimes the Keaukaha School kids come to our farm on their excursions. I tell them stories and give examples of how a positive attitude can overcome any problem. And at the end of the tour when I yell out “Not, no can!” they all yell back: “CAN!” Right on!
I see the annual $1 million Education Fund as a way of opening up kids’ minds and making them understand that they can do anything. We do not want our kids to wallow in victim-ism. That is waste time.
What we need is for them to have an optimism and a pride that our people were astronomers and the best navigators in the world. We want all kids, not just Hawaiians, to feel that high aspirations and goals are normal and not out of the ordinary.
The TMT leadership—Henry Yang and Jean Lou Chameau—listened to our advice very early on. They went and talked to community folks, like Kumu Lehua and Patrick Kahawaiola‘a, and they understood that the common denominator on which people on all sides of the issue could agree was the education of our keiki.
We have our eye on a goal, and so yesterday’s announcement that the TMT Board has decided on Mauna Kea for its new telescope is a huge, huge deal.
Our new hydroelectric system is almost ready to go.
We received a County permit to put a power line under the single lane County road, and that was finished several weeks ago. All the overhead lines are in place now.
All we need to do is hook up the ends and we will be generating electricity from the river.
Our vision is to use the electricity to help area farmers consolidate and ship their produce to market along with ours.
Our hydro project is an attempt to stabilize farmers’ costs. Farmers and food manufacturers here in Hawai‘i – where we use oil for more than 70 percent of our electricity generation, compared to the Mainland where they use oil to generate only 2 percent of their electricity – are at a disadvantage when it comes to importing food products.
Lots of veteran Big Island farmers are considering selling, instead of passing their farm on to the next generation. The quadrupling of energy costs in the last 10 years had been just too hard for them to adjust to.
Our farm uses approximately 30 kilowatts of electricity, and we will generate more than 70 kilowatts.
We’re asking people for ideas about what to do with the excess electricity. One idea is to cold treat temperate fruit and fool it to think it’s growing in Washington, sort of like what they did at NELHA. I that case, they ran cold water by temperate crops and gave them the cold treatment that way.
I’m speaking on a radio program about geothermal tomorrow afternoon (Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 5:15 p.m.). It’s on KGU AM, if you’re in Honolulu, or you can listen to the program online tomorrow.
The main speaker will be former Hawai‘i County Mayor Harry Kim.
Joining him for the first half of the program will be Robert Petricci, leader of the Puna Pono Alliance, and Tom Travis, Navy nuclear submarine commander.
For the show’s second half, it will be Mayor Kim, me and Professor Don Thomas, PhD, who is Director of the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes at the University of Hawai‘i.
If you get a chance to listen, let me know what you think.
Years ago I worked for United Airlines, and the story of that portion of my life is told through travel tales.
For instance, when the airline started flying to New Zealand, I packed my bag. Two highlights of that trip were:
The Auckland Museum. I purposely, and delightedly, went to New Zealand by myself, which was delicious because it meant I got to go where I wanted, and do what I wanted, without compromise. It meant I could spend hours and hours at this museum with its fascinating Polynesian collection. I was so interested that a man who is a guide there, but was off for the day, gave me a tour of part of the museum. Also, I met a really nice older, grandmother-type woman in the museum’s café and we chatted for a long time; eventually she invited me to her house for tea and we had a fun visit that I have always remembered. (Lesson: When you travel by yourself, you often have experiences you would not otherwise have.)
Visiting Rotorua, specifically for the geothermally heated mineral spas that the North Island town is known for. That was great.
What a cool place, first of all. The whole town smells slightly sulfur-y, which gives it an otherworldly feel (smell?). I liked that.
People love soaking in those geothermally heated pools such as Rotorua’s Polynesian Spa (recognized by Conde Nast Traveller magazine as one of the Top 10 natural/thermal/medical spas in the world), I tell you. Including me.
Another big spa in Rotorua is interestingly called Hell’s Gate, with the subtitle, “The Beast Of All Geothermal Parks.”
From the website (which explains how it got that name):
Hells Gate geothermal attraction is Rotorua’s most active geothermal park and is known as the “AWESOME BEAST” of New Zealand Geothermal attractions. Hells Gate geothermal attraction features boiling hot pools and erupting waters with temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Celsius; steaming fumaroles; hot water lakes; sulphur crystals and deposits; New Zealand’s largest active mud volcano; Southern Hemisphere’s largest hot water fall and even examples of land coral. See, feel and understand the awe of Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw as he gazed upon the land and gave it the English name “Hellsgate” as he believed he had arrived at the gates to Hell. A primeval setting displaying the awesome RAW POWER of the earth and its geothermal nature.
And here’s how they advertise their “unique geothermal muds,” and what they are helpful for:
See, touch and be amazed with the unique geothermal muds of the Hells Gate geothermal park – the black geothermal mud used for more than a century in the treatment of arthritics and rheumatism, our ice cold white geothermal mud that changes its form from solid to liquid and back again, that is used for the relief of burns; and the warm silky grey geothermal mud that gently exfoliates the skin. Hells Gate geothermal park is the only geothermal attraction in New Zealand that produces these three types of geothermal muds making Hells Gate geothermal attraction in Rotorua a unique geothermal mud experience.
And a little history:
Follow the footsteps of warriors old, through the swirling clouds of steam, past the pool where the Maori Princess, “Hurutini” lost her life for her people; see the violent geothermal activity of the “Inferno” with two erupting pools aptly named “Soddam” and “Gomorra” by George Bernard Shaw and then on to the “Kakahi Hot Water Fall, where warriors would return after battle to remove the “Tapu” of war and heal their wounds at the only Maori-owned area of geothermal in New Zealand.
I am such a huge fan of the whole hot spa soaking thing, as people have been, of course, throughout time.
From the UK Energy Research Centre: Geothermal energy was discovered in its simplest form many centuries ago. During Roman times water percolating through fissures in hot rocks produced hot springs in the ground around which civilizations were built (e.g. Bath Spa, UK; Pompeii, Italy).
This past summer I took my daughter to see the ancient geothermal Roman baths at Bath. Check out this neat video look at the elegant and historic town of Bath. The section on the baths themselves starts at about 4:09.
There are geothermally heated springs for soaking in all over the place. I truly got lost in this article, 20 Great Hot Springs Around Europe, for quite awhile.
Then there’s the amazingly beautiful Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik, Iceland, which Richard has visited and which I would love to see (especially between November and April, which is the season of the Northern Lights – how great would that combination be!).
And now I have worked myself all up into wanting to take a world tour: Visiting hot spas, soaking in geothermal mud, relieving aches and possibly medical conditions, who knows, while at the same time completely relaxing and rejuvenating. What a life that would be! Shall we have Richard send me on such a fact-finding mission?
I could go check out all these geothermally heated spas, first-hand, ask people why they flock to them, and then post reports on the blog telling you how great it is.
I would revisit Rotorua and soak right at Hell’s Gate.
I would go to Japan, where I was a teenage exchange student not once but twice, and still somehow completely missed the onsens.
It’s possible I would even try an “onsen tomago.”
Onsen tamago (温泉卵 or 温泉玉子?) is a traditional Japanese boiled egg which is originally slow cooked in the water of onsen hot springs in Japan. The traditional way of cooking onsen tamago is to place eggs into rope nets and leave them in a hot spring, with water that is approximately 70°C (158ºF) for 30 to 40 minutes. Crack open the shell and serve the egg in seasoned bonito dashi (Japanese stock) for breakfast, or in a light sauce made with mirin, dashi and soy sauce with chopped spring onions sprinkled over the top.
To heck with the eggs; I would soak myself in Japan’s onsen, snow all around, and possibly even with these macaques. Lucky devils.
On my international fact-finding mission, I would be forced to stay in Reykjavik and soak in the Blue Lagoon night after night after night, until I had marveled at the Northern Lights to my complete satisfaction.
But in the meantime, it’s not all bad here, either. There is, for instance, our geothermally heated pond at Alahanui County Park in Kapoho. Did you know that before the 1960 Kapoho eruption, the waters there weren’t hot? I didn’t know that.
Another interesting site within the Puna district are the heated tide pools at Ahalanui Beach Park (aka Puʻalaʻa County Park), where spring water has been naturally heated through geothermal energy and this mixes with ocean water along the shoreline.
Q: How deep is the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in Iceland?
From Wikipedia: The warm waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulphur and bathing in the Blue Lagoon is reputed to help some people suffering from skin diseases such as psoriasis.[1] The water temperature in the bathing and swimming area of the lagoon averages 37–39 °C (98–102 °F). The Blue Lagoon also operates a Research and Development facility to help find cures for other skin ailments using the mineral-rich water.
The lagoon is a man-made lagoon which is fed by the water output of the nearby geothermal power plant Svartsengi and is renewed every 2 days. Superheated water is vented from the ground near a lava flow and used to run turbines that generate electricity. After going through the turbines, the steam and hot water passes through a heat exchanger to provide heat for a municipal water heating system. Then the water is fed into the lagoon for recreational and medicinal users to bathe in.
A: I was there, and it’s waist high. People don’t stand up because it’s too cold outside. The steam rising in the back is partly H2S. But as with Japan’s onsens, the Blue Lagoon is looked upon as providing a health benefit.
There have been fireworks lately around the subject of geothermal over at the Big Island Chronicle blog.
Robert Petricci is leader of the anti-geothermal group that include Senator Ruderman and Mayor Kim. Petricci never answers the question, “What about the rubbah slippah folks?”
I was surprised to see that both HB106 AND HB932 were killed.
The Big Island Community Coalition supported both bills. Both addressed geothermal development and included County home rule provisions, mediation and permitted geothermal development where wind and solar are allowed.
It appears to me that the choice was either “institute geothermal subzones” or “kill the bill.” So in the end, County home rule did not seem to be the most important issue.
