Tag Archives: Big Island

If We Spend All Our Money on Electricity…

At a local level, the rising cost of electricity, whatever the cause, will result in severe economic pressures.

What’s important to realize is that 70 percent of our economy is based on consumer spending. “If people no more money, they no can spend.”

It all relates to costs.

See these Honolulu Star-Advertiser articles on the subject:

Geothermal power production could double

Hawaiian Electric Light Co. wants to tap more of the Earth’s power for electricity

By Alan Yonan Jr. 

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 07, 2012

Officials from Hawaiian Electric Light Co. said Friday they will soon seek regulatory approval to more than double the amount of geothermal power produced on Hawaii island in a move that could provide some relief for residential utility customers, who pay the highest electric rates in the state…. Read more

and

Keep close eye on geothermal funds

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 07, 2012

Hawaii has been touted as an ideal laboratory for the development of renewable energy that’s bound up in its wind, seas and sunshine. It’s the southernmost island in the chain, however, that may be the most richly endowed overall, and the most promising resource of all is the one that’s buried far beneath the surface…. Read more

Having attended four Peak Oil conferences now, I have seen that Jeff Rubin is one of the credible commentators on the world oil situation. His comments are especially relevant to the discussion about rising oil prices in Hawai‘i today.

Audio of Jeff Rubin’s talk at the most recent ASPO conference.

From his blog:

…The real story behind triple digit oil prices is not the threat of supply shocks, but the sheer, unrelenting rise in world oil demand.  Already closing in on 90 million barrels a day, the quick rebound in world oil consumption to new record highs demonstrates the global economy can’t grow without burning greater amounts of oil.

No matter how many rabbits the oil industry can pull out of its hat, be it tar sands from Alberta or shale oil from the Bakkens, supply just can’t seem to keep pace – at least not at the prices most consumers can afford to pay. That is the message that triple digit prices keeps telling us.

If the global economic expansion, troubled as it may be, continues, we will see even higher oil prices in 2012. But what does that say about the sustainability of growth?

And even if there is growth, what is the pace? Read the whole post here.

Jeff Rubin explains why he quit his job as Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets. In Hawai‘i, we call it kuleana.

After twenty years as Chief Economist for a North American investment bank, it was time for me to seek a larger audience for the story I needed to tell.

My predictions of steadily rising oil prices over the last decade, including my call for $100-per-barrel oil by 2007, had flown in the face of conventional wisdom.

Among other things, my track record on predicting rising oil prices demonstrated that the traditional laws of supply and demand were no longer working for one of the economy’s most basic and essential commodities. And when they stopped working, the consequences for the economy would be severe.

It wasn’t subprime mortgages but triple-digit oil prices that brought down the world economy.

And unless that economy started to wean itself off an ever-depleting supply of affordable oil, there would be other recessions to follow as economic recoveries would simply push oil prices right back into triple-digit range. But weaning our economy off oil meant, at the same time, making fundamental changes in the way we live.

This is not the kind of message investment banks want their chief economists delivering these days, to either governments or investors. But the urgency of this message grows with every passing day.

On March 31, 2009, I resigned my position as Chief Economist and Managing Director of CIBC World Markets to deliver this message in my book, Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization.

Jeff Rubin was the Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets for 20 years. He was one of the first economists to accurately predict soaring oil prices back in 2000 and is now one of the world’s most sought-after energy experts. He lives in Toronto.

Geothermal Working Group Report is Unveiled

We know the era of cheap oil is over, and that it is only a matter of when and how high oil prices will rise.

What we need now is to see what we can do to enable geothermal. Two-thirds of our economy is made up of consumer spending, and stabilizing electricity prices will help our people cope.

From Hawaii Reporter:

Geothermal Working Group- Final Report unveiled by the County of Hawai‘i

REPORT FROM HAWAII COUNTY – HILO, HAWAII – The Geothermal Working Group, with the support of Hawai`i County Mayor Billy Kenoi, will present the final draft of the Geothermal Working Group Report on Wednesday, January 4, 2011 at 2:30 p.m.  The press conference will be held at the County building on the Mayor’s lanai at 25 Aupuni St., second floor.

The report was sponsored by the County of Hawai‘i to evaluate geothermal energy as the primary source of baseload power for electricity on the Island of Hawai‘i.  The report includes an analysis of technical data and expert testimony providing convincing rationale to develop local renewable energy plants and transition away from the county’s dependence on petroleum-fueled generators for baseload electricity.  The report, which is currently being circulated within Hawai`i’s State Legislation, was developed as research to help support Hawai`i’s Clean Energy Initiative goals…. Read the rest

As I’ve talked about here before, Iceland has made itself energy and food secure. We can too.

2011: The Year in Review

What a year it’s been! Here are some 2011 highlights:

There was a lot of conversation, of course, about geothermal. The Geothermal Working Group Interim Report  – which provided lawmakers with an evaluation of using the hot water reservoir in certain locations of Big Island to provide local and renewable energy for electricity and transportation – was distributed to state legislators. I also wrote about it being a matter of leadership, about mopping the deck of the Titanic, and about how the momentum toward geothermal has shifted. Also about a Democratic Party Resolution supporting geothermal for baseload electrical power.

I attended a geothermal energy forum in Pahoa, with Hawaiian leaders speaking and every seat taken. There were more Hawaiian perspectives in supporting geothermal, this time in Hilo. And about even more Big Island support for geothermal.

Screen shot 2012-01-01 at 10.37.49 PM

I posted a link to the cloudcam, a time-lapse video taken by the Canada France Hawaii telescope’s cloud cam at night, which I thought was really neat. It’s time-lapse photography where you can watch the stars migrate across the night sky.

June and I enjoyed meeting and talking with visionary Earl Bakken at his Kiloho Bay home, and learning about his manifesto.

Screen shot 2012-01-01 at 10.42.12 PM

We participated in Alan Wong’s Farmers Series dinner for a second time, and really enjoyed it.

Screen shot 2012-01-01 at 10.40.13 PM

People seemed to enjoy the conclusion of my Maku‘u Series. I got a lot of great feedback on it. It was fun remembering the old days and the old ways of my Kamahele ‘ohana in Maku‘u.

I wrote about biofuels, and the very real problems with them. Also on biofuels and feedstock. I wrote a post about the National Research Council calling biofuels costly and their impacts questionable.

I spoke to the Kamehameha Schools First Nation Fellows about food sustainability, showed them the farm and gave them some of the best advice I could think of.

Of course I mentioned a few times about how “If the farmers make money, farmers will farm.” That link is to one of those times.

In June, seven Polynesian-style voyaging waka (canoes), representing different Pacific Islands, arrived in Hilo Bay after a two-month voyage from Aotearoa (New Zealand).

Screen shot 2012-01-01 at 8.36.33 PM

Leslie Lang, my blog editor, went for a spin around the bay on one, and we wrote about how the ancient ways are again showing us the way.

“It’s all about taking the knowledge and wisdom of the past and using it in the present to make a stronger future. It’s exactly what the old Polynesians did when they sailed out into the Pacific to find new land.”

It’s a strong metaphor. I wrote my impressions of the vaka here.

More vaka posts: The Canoes are Coming: Te Mana o Te MoanaThey’re Here! and What’s the Big Deal about Voyaging Canoes?

In July, CEO of Ku‘oko‘a Ro Marth and I went to Iceland, in order to see for ourselves how Iceland went from being a developing country in the 1970s to one of the most productive countries in the world today. (Here’s a hint: GEOTHERMAL.)

Screen shot 2012-01-01 at 10.35.46 PM

Read about our very interesting trip (I wore shorts) at Heading to IcelandHeading to Iceland 2Power Plant Earth and Iceland, In Conclusion.

The online news organization Civil Beat published my three-part series on energy and food security in September.

Civil Beat article

And I attended my fourth Peak Oil conference, this one in Washington, D.C. I wrote about it here: Part 1: As the ASPO Conference Gears UpPart 2: Impressions from the ConferencePart 3: Energy Return on Energy Invested and Part 4: The Answer is Geothermal.

It has been a busy, productive and interesting year, and I look forward to having another of the same. My best wishes to everybody out there reading for a happy, healthy and successful 2012!

Momentum Toward Geothermal Has Shifted

It is clear that the momentum toward geothermal has shifted.

There have been numerous community meetings on the Big Island, where the overwhelming number of Hawaiians are in favor of geothermal if it is done in a pono way: It needs to be culturally sensitive and benefit the community, and before we implement geothermal, it must be shown that its use is environmentally benign.

People on the Big Island are very aware that geothermal electricity is much cheaper to produce than oil- or biofuel-generated electricity. They expect to see a difference on their electric bills.

This major change will be very challenging for the electric utility as it tries to translate geothermal production into lower electric bills. But they have the best people working for them; they are our friends and neighbors. Actually, they are us.

Not, no can. CAN!

Water, Water, Everywhere…

How is it that, after drilling through fresh water and then through 9000 feet of salt water, they hit cold fresh water under pressure? That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Last year, Don Thomas gave a talk to the Keaukaha Community Association about this project I wrote about last time.

A very Wet Trip

This is what it looks like when water under 160 pounds of pressure shoots up out of the ground.

Read more about his Keaukaha talk here.

Don Thomas is the UH professor who was in charge of the water drilling project, and he has agreed to take us on a behind-the-scenes tour of this fascinating project. I’ll be writing more about it here at the blog; stay tuned!

Talk: On HECO, ‘Time is Running Short’

Yesterday I gave a talk at the Sheraton Outrigger in Keauhou. The talk was for the Water Works Association of Hawaii, which is the umbrella association of all of Hawai‘i’s water departments.

The Water Works Association meeting agenda

I started off by describing all the different hats I wear: Farmer; Co-Chair of the Geothermal Working Group, and Chairman of the Board of Ku‘oko‘a.

I talked about the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) operating with one hand tied behind its back. HECO has a fiduciary duty to its shareholders and so it cannot do all the things it might want to do to help Hawai‘i’s people. For instance, it would have a difficult time lowering Hawai‘i’s electricity rates – by closing its oil-fired plants and bringing on significant amounts of geothermal – without hurting its shareholders’ stock price.

HECO is under much pressure lately. Ku‘oko‘a wants to untie HECO’s hand so it can be the utility all its people want it to be. We don’t want to take HECO over; we want to empower HECO for the benefit of Hawai‘i’s people.

The main point I tried to make in my talk was that time is getting short. And that there is more than enough evidence to show that oil prices will rise in the future. It is not about whether or not one particular theory is right or wrong. The evidence we see all around us is compelling enough.

The reason I know about this is that I have attended three Peak Oil Conferences, and this subject has been on my radar for more than five years now.

We know that the peak of oil discovery was in the 1960s. For the last 20 years, we have been using twice as much oil as we have been finding.

We also know that all oil fields decline eventually. In fact, the natural decline rate of all the oil fields put together requires us to find a Saudi Arabia every two to three years. Clearly we have not been doing this.

Oil exporting countries will use more and more of their own oil. This means less for the rest of us. They must do this, in order to keep their people happy, or the dictators will get thrown out of office.

China and India use much less oil per person than we do, yet their economies keep on growing. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser points out that our electricity rates are approaching the high point of 2008. Our people are suffering, and yet China and India can pay this oil price while their economies keep growing.

And we have not even passed the peak of oil supply. Trying to be safe by doing nothing is no longer safe. We need to think different.

More on all this in my recent editorials for Civil Beat.

Kuokoa Board Member James Woolsey

James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and a board member of Ku‘oko‘a, was in Hawai‘i recently to deliver the keynote address at the Asia Pacific Clean Energy Expo and Summit in Honolulu.

His keynote speech is here; forward ahead to 37:00 to hear it.

A recent Civil Beat article starts:

Hawaii needs to take decisive action in moving away from its dependence on foreign oil and capturing local renewable energy sources to power its energy needs, according to James Woolsey, former CIA director under President Bill Clinton and board member of Kuokoa, the local start-up company that wants to take over Hawaiian Electric Co.

“This will not work, this moving Hawaii into a position of leadership and saving Hawaii from its terrible energy dependence — it will not work without decisive action,” said Woolsey. “One can’t halfway do it.” Read the rest

Though he delivers a very sobering message, Jim also has a great sense of humor. While here he also spoke in Kona, and during that Q&A session, he turned his back, unbuttoned his long-sleeve dress shirt, and untucked it. Then he turned back around to face the audience to reveal his t-shirt.

Tshirt

His t-shirt shows a cartoon figure with a gas nozzle in one ear, which is blowing his brains out the other ear. The audience screamed laughing.

Also while he was here, we took the opportunity to make sure he became culturally familiar with who the Hawaiian people are, and how much importance we at Ku‘oko‘a place on all our people having a good cultural grounding in how the people think.

Greg Chun, president of Kamehameha Investment Group and an expert on the Keauhou/Kona area, met us at Keauhou to give us an orientation.

Cropped group on roof with heiau

Left to right: Ku‘oko‘a Board Member Noe Kalipi; daughter-in-law of Jacqui Hoover; Board Member Jim Woolsey; Jacqui Hoover, President of the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board; Kamehameha Schools’ Greg Chun, and Ku‘oko‘a President Ted Peck.

We went up on roof of the Keauhou Outrigger, because from there Jim could see a paranomic view of Keauhou – from the bay to the heiaus and to the hillsides, large expanses that were formerly terraced and planted and which supported many people in pre-contact Hawai‘i.

Heiau

We have had a lot of conversations with Jim about these things we are so grounded in, but to actually see it all and walk it is different than just talking about it. We walked to the heiaus, and out to the ocean.

Heiau - view from roof

Before Jim was a lawyer and high up in government, he studied history. So he knows a lot about civilizations and this was not foreign to him; he understood it immediately. He gets it.

Noe Kalipi, Ted Peck, June and I had a very fun dinner with him the night before his speech. He is a really good guy!

He sees that Hawai‘i is a place where you can scale technology to demonstrate that these things can be done. His whole idea is that we can do this here in Hawai‘i.

He’s like us: We are all committed to making this happen. It’s not an “if.” We must do this.

What Kuokoa is All About

The Ku‘oko‘a Board of Directors recently briefed a group of influential people on what we are all about.

Former CIA Director Jim Woolsey talked about our dependency on oil, and its national security implications. He talked about Hawai‘i’s situation – that we have the potential to free ourselves from the tyranny of oil – and explained that this possibility is what made him want to be involved.

Former U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Secretary TJ Glauthier, who brings a high level of experience to our team, spoke about the Ku‘oko‘a business plan, and said that the preliminary numbers do work.

Former Harvard Professor of Entrepreneurship, and current UH Shidler College of Professor, Rob Robinson acted as moderator. He explained why the Ku‘oko‘a model, which emphasizes a low cost of electricity, is so important to the future of Hawai‘i.

Venture Capitalist Roald Marth, who is also CEO of Ku‘oko‘a, spoke about how he came to be involved in the energy issue, and how he has committed his life to freeing Hawai‘i from fossil fuel. Ro has been relentless in his efforts.

Former Hawai‘i State Energy Administrator Ted Peck walked everyone through the basic Ku‘oko‘a plan.

It’s a powerful team. At the end, there was a Q&A period, during which board members answered questions and addressed comments from the audience.

I spoke first, and here is what I said:

Aloha Everyone,

I am Richard Ha, Chairman of the Board of Ku‘oko‘a. Ku‘oko‘a is trying to align the needs of the people with the needs of the utility.

I am a farmer, so I tend to go straight to the essential elements. The world has been using three times the oil it has been finding for the last 30 years. In 2003, oil price was between 20 and 30 per barrel. The price rose steadily, yet the supply did not increase. Sooner or later we will start to drop down the backside of the oil supply curve.  

In addition, because it is taking more energy to get energy, the net energy left over to do work will also decline. And on top of this, China and India’s people cannot wait to jump in their cars to drive to McDonalds. And the oil exporting nations have to use more oil for their own people, or they will get thrown out of office.

All these things occurring simultaneously tell us that the safety of the status quo, where Hawai‘i relies on oil for 76 percent of its electricity generation, is increasingly not safe.

Since we are talking story here, I want to tell you who I am and what my values are. Mom is Okinawan, Higa from Molokai. Pop’s father was Korean – Ha, and his mom was Leihulu Kamahele. Her mom was Meleana Kamoe Kamahele and her dad was Frank Kamahele. Our family land was down the beach at Maku‘u, in Puna.

We were very poor, but we didn’t know it. Pop would tell stories at the dinner table where he would talk about impossible situations, impossible odds.

Then he would pound the table and point in the air. “Not, no can. CAN!”

And he would say, “There are a thousand reasons why no can. I only looking for the one reason why can.” He told us to find three solutions for every problem, and then find one more just in case. He finished 6th grade but he was a wise man.

I was a kolohe kid growing up. I went to UH Manoa, where I flunked out. Too many places to go, people to see and beers to drink. I was drafted and applied to go to Officers’ Candidate School, and then I volunteered to go to Vietnam. Ended up walking in the jungle with 100 other soldiers. If we got into trouble there was no one close enough to help us. The unwritten rule was that we all come back or no one comes back. I liked that and have kept that attitude ever since.

I went back to UH and majored in accounting so I could keep score when I went into business. Pop asked if I would come back and help to run the family chicken farm. I came back and saw an opportunity to grow bananas but I had no money.

“Not, no can. CAN!” So we traded chicken manure for banana keiki. By questioning everything, looking into the future and forcing change, we were able to survive in farming for more than 30 years. We farm 600 fee simple acres outside of Hilo with 60 workers. It just goes to show that anything is possible.

We are not afraid to try stuff. I was given the University of Hawai‘i College of Business’s “Hall of Honor” award, as well the UH’s Distinguished Graduate award, for my role in bringing theThirty Meter Telescope to the Big Island. That is a $1.3 billion project, and it was a foregone conclusion that it was going to Chile until we went to work engaging our Big Island community here. It’s now coming to the point in the legal process where construction can begin in a short time.

Our family’s company was the first banana company in the world to be certified ECO-OK by the Rainforest Alliance, the largest third party certifying organization. That was reported widely in the banana producing areas of Central and South America. In fact, they scrambled to find a farm in Costa Rica who could be certified along with us, so we both could say we were first in the world. And it had a big influence in changing the environmental behavior of the Doles, Chiquitas and Del Montes.

We were one of six national finalists for the SARE award, a sustainable production award open to all farms in the nation. I mention all these things because we live by the spirit, “Not, no can. CAN!” 

One day five years ago, we realized that our farming supply costs had been steadily rising, and found that it was all due to oil. So I went to go learn about oil so we could reposition our company for the future. I was the only person from Hawai‘i to attend three Association for the Study of Peak Oil conferences.

The main lesson there was that the world had been using two to three times the oil it had been finding for the last 30 years, and that soon, the game will be up.

Coming back to Hawai‘i, we repositioned our farm and soon we start construction of a hydroelectric plant that will take us completely off the grid.

Several years went by, and then I met Ro Marth and we embarked on this project. It made total sense to me. First it was Ro, myself and Ted Peck. The paper called us the government bureaucrat, the tomato farmer and the motivational speaker. It was kind of humorous.

We did not let ourselves get distracted, but went about doing our work – first by putting our board together. We needed to be credible with Wall Street, Bishop Street and Kinoole Street. Especially Kinoole Street. This needed to be a company that the rubbah slippah folks would see as local, and, preferably, their own.

It’s all about people, and we have put together a strong team. We have incredibly smart, caring and courageous people. Our diversity is what gives us our strength, and also we watch each other’s backs. And we would love for courageous folks, who can see a brighter future for Hawai‘i, to join us.

Ro and I visited Iceland recently. Iceland has managed to make itself energy secure and food secure by using cheap geothermal and hydro. Its electricity costs are less than half of ours. In Iceland, they export energy in the form of aluminum, and that allows them to buy food. The cheap-energy sector of their economy is helping the country recover from its banking sectors meltdown. Low cost energy makes them competitive with the rest of the world. Not high cost energy.

Mayor Kenoi will soon sign a sister city document with the Mayor of Ormoc City in the Phillipines. They have the same population as the Big Island, but Ormoc City produces 700 MW of electricity with its geothermal, compared to our 30MW.

We are very fortunate to have geothermal on the Big Island. It costs less than 10 cents/kWh to generate electricity from geothermal, while it costs more than 20 cents/kWh to generate electricity from oil.

Can we find the solution to our energy problems while taking care of the rubbah slippah folks too? It’s about the cost of energy. If we choose an expensive alternative for electricity, we know that folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder will get their lights turned off first. Leaving the rubbah slippah folks behind should not be an option. If we try hard enough to find solutions, we should be able to take care of everyone.

One of our solutions is to replace oil with geothermal as base load for the generation of electricity. One day, I asked Jim Kauahikaua, Chief Scientist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, “Eh Jim, how long the Big Island will be over the hot spot?” He said, “Between 500,000 and a million years.” I thought to myself, “That should be long enough.”

In modern Hawaiian history, the economy has taken taken taken and the culture has given, given, given. We have a unique opportunity now where the economy can give and the culture can receive. If we can stabilize energy costs at a low level, we will become more competitive to the rest of the world as oil prices rise and our people’s standard of living will rise. We can address the energy problem and take care of the rubbah slippah folks too.

We can look forward to handing our children and their children’s children a brighter tomorrow.

We are looking for like-minded, brave folks to join us and help bring about the kinds of change that will take all of us into a brighter future.

As my Pop used to say: “Not, no can. CAN!”

Video: Geothermal Energy Forum

Over the weekend I participated in a geothermal energy forum here in Hilo.

We have got to start doing something.

Screen shot 2011-08-30 at 9.47.49 PM

The coverage is from Big Island Video News, and it starts like this:

HILO, Hawaii: The public courtship concerning the future use of Geothermal Energy continued with this forum in Hilo on Saturday.

A large and varied panel of specialists discussed the sustainable energy that is abundant on Hawaii Island, a growing candidate to lead the Hawaii towards energy independence.

Many faces seen in previous forums were present: including Richard Ha, local farmer and co-chair of the Geothermal Working Group, back from a recent trip to Iceland where he gathered information of that nation’s use of geothermal power.

A mix of government and utility officials, and business persons rounded out the panel….

See the rest here.

My Speech at the Council of Native Hawaiian Advancement Conference

Noe Kalipi, Ramsay Taum and I – all board members from Ku‘oko‘a – each spoke for five minutes at the Council of Native Hawaiian Advancement conference.

Speech pix2

Noe and Ramsay were just awesome. It’s clear that Ku‘oko‘a is a native Hawaiian company with native Hawaiian sensibilities. The good wishes and warm requests for information were very humbling.

Senator Akaka spoke right before us.

Speech pix1

Here is the speech I gave.

Aloha Everyone,

I am Richard Ha, chairman of the board of Ku‘oko‘a. Ku‘oko‘a is trying to align the needs of the people with the needs of the utility.

I want to start by telling you who I am and what my values are. Mom is Okinawan, Higa from Moloka‘i; Pop’s father was Korean, Ha. My pop’s mom was Leihulu Kamahele. And her mom was Meleana Kamoe Kamahele and her dad was Frank Kamahele. Our family land was down the beach at Maku‘u in Puna. We were very poor but didn’t know it.

Pop would tell stories at the dinner table. He would talk about impossible situations, impossible odds. Then he would pound the table and point in the air. “Not, no can. CAN!”

And he would say, “There are a thousand reasons why no can. I only looking for the one reason why ‘Can.’”

He told us to find three solutions for every problem, and then find one more just in case. He only finished sixth grade, but he was a wise man.

I was a kolohe kid growing up. I went to UH Manoa, where I flunked out. Too many places to go, people to see and beers to drink. I was drafted, and applied to go to Officers Candidate School, and then I volunteered to go to Vietnam. Ended up walking in the jungle with a hundred other soldiers. If we got into trouble there was no one close enough to help us. The unwritten rule was that we all come back, or no one comes back. I liked that and kept that attitude ever since.

I went back to UH and majored in accounting so I could keep score when I went into business. Pop asked if I would come back and help run the family chicken farm. I came back and saw an opportunity to grow bananas, but I had no money.

“Not, no can, CAN!” so we traded chicken manure for banana pulapula. By questioning everything, looking into the future and forcing change we have been able to survive in farming for more than 30 years.

We farm 600 fee simple acres with 60 workers.  Five years ago, we noticed supply costs had been steadily rising, and we found it was all due to oil. I was the only person from Hawai‘i to attend three Peak Oil conferences. I went to learn about oil so that we could position our business.

There I found out that the world had been using twice as much oil as it had been finding for the last 30 years. This is a very serious situation. I am stuck with this knowledge and that knowledge has become my kuleana. I know what is likely to happen and so try to find solutions that are good for all of us.

There are truly Native Hawaiian sensitivities embedded in our Ku‘oko‘a team and organization. The board and the team we have put together are the best we could find. Ramsay Taum and Noe Kalipi are members of our board and we will each say a few words. Board members went to Hilo to participate in the festivities for the seven vaka that came up from the south. We felt that it was important.

Right now there are no guidelines to choose the low-cost, proven technology solution that eases the pressure on the rubbah slippah folks. We can do this. You folks all know the consequence of rising cost of energy, water, school lunches, etc. It is the folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder who will get their lights turned off first. Too often they are Hawaiians.

Iceland has managed to make themselves energy secure and food secure. Their electricity costs are less than half of ours. Can we find the solution to our energy problems while taking care of the rubbah slippah folks too? Leaving them behind is not an option. If we search for the solution, if we ask the question, we can find the answer.

In modern Hawaiian history, the economy has taken taken taken and the culture has given, given, given. We have a unique opportunity now where the economy can give and the culture can receive. If we can stabilize energy costs at a low level, as oil prices rise we will become more competitive to the rest of the world and our people’s standard of living will rise. We can address the energy problem and take care of the rubbah slippah folks too.

As Pop used to say: “Not ‘no can;’ ‘CAN!’”