Tag Archives: Hawaii

Bananas, Food Security, Government, Tomatoes

‘So God Made A Farmer,’ And Now The Hawaii County Council Wants To Make Them Criminals

September 30, 2013 Richard Ha 5 Comments

NOTE: I do not grow any GMO crops, and I do not have any financial or other affiliation to any large seed or other companies that advocate the use of GMOs. My interest in this topic is in finding the right direction for Big Island farming and in being able to feed our future generations.

The Hawai‘i County Council meets again tomorrow regarding the anti-GMO bill.

I sent a letter to the editor of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and West Hawaii Today asking that we take a sincere look at the big picture.

We need to know what we want for the Big Island, and then formulate a plan to get us there.

We need to leverage our resources so as to provide affordable food to the rubbah slippah folks while also working toward achieving food self-sufficiency for future generations.

We need to identify how we can achieve a competitive advantage over the rest of the world.

We need to realize that the Big Island is young, geologically, compared to the older islands. We do not, therefore, have alluvial plains, which form after many years of erosion. We do not have the conditions that would support industrial-scale agriculture – flat land, a dry climate, strong sun energy, deep soil and irrigation.

The seed companies are not arriving here tomorrow to set up shop. Their tractors make money on the straightaways, and they lose money on the turns. It’s counterintuitive, but in spite of its size, the Big Island is an environment best suited for small farmers, not large one. Let’s not let a fear of industrialization cause us to make decisions that kill off our small farmers.

Margaret Wille has now suggested we do an ad hoc study group as part of the Bill 113 discussion. This is an excellent place to begin. Let’s place Bill 113 on hold while we do a fair and impartial study of how we will get from here to there. Who is right is not as important as what is right.

Kumu Lehua Veincent always asks: “What about the rest?” and that is the key question. How do we come to a solution that takes care of the rubbah slippah folks as well as everybody else?

There are a thousand reasons why, No can. We must find the one reason why, CAN!!

Some of my thoughts about all this:

Q. How is farmers’ morale now that Bill 113 is out there?

A. Big Island farmers are demoralized. Paul Harvey narrated a commercial during the last Super Bowl that said, “And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer.

It’s less than a year later, and now Big Island farmers are at risk of being criminalized.

Q. What do farmers think of Bill 113?

A. They feel it is unfair. They feel that they would not be able to use biotech solutions for insect and disease problems in the future, as will their counterparts on the other islands. They feel they would not be able to compete.

Farmers want to be good stewards of the land, and they are very distressed that they might be forced to use more pesticides than the rest of the state’s farmers.

Q. What biotech solutions are being developed for bananas?

A. Resistance to Race 4 Fusarium wilt, the biggest threat right now to banana farming worldwide, and resistance to Banana Bunchy Top virus. Both are taking place at the University of Hawai‘i right now.

Q. What biotech solutions are being developed for tomatoes right now?

A. Resistance to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, which could devastate a tomato farm.

Q. As a relatively large farmer, do you think the big seed companies will come to the Big Island?

A. No. They’d lose money, which is why they are not already here. They need flat land, low humidity, high sunlight, deep soil and irrigation. Because the Big Island is so young geologically, these conditions are very rare here. Big tractors make money on the straightaways and lose money on the turns.

Q. Will Bill 113 increase our island’s food self-sufficiency?

A. No. Food self-sufficiency involves farmers farming. If the farmers make money, the farmers will farm. Bill 113 would make Big Island farmers less competitive. So it would result in less food self-sufficiency.

Q. Would Bill 113 result in less pesticide applications?

A. No. It’s biotech solutions that result in fewer pesticide applications. Big Island farmers would have to use more pesticides as compared to the rest of the State.

Q. What do farmers think of registering GMO farms?

A. They worry that this would make it easy for ecoterrorists to locate them.

Q. Hector Valenzuela suggested that organic farmers seek high-end markets. Would that help provide food for the masses?

A. It won’t. That solution anticipates a niche production for people who can afford high prices.

Q. Can organics provide sufficient affordable food for the masses?

A. No. There is no winter here to kill off bugs and provide an automatic reset. There isn’t sufficient manure for compost to provide the nitrogen fertilizer, which is the basic building block for protein.

Q. How can biotech solutions give Hawai‘i farmers a competitive advantage over the rest of the world?

A. They leverage our Hawaiian sunshine, which allows us to grow food year round. Also, reducing the cost of controlling insects and diseases that thrive in the humid subtropics gives Hawai‘i farmers a competitive advantage over the rest of the world.

Q. Do you think GMOs are safe?

A. Yes. Every major scientific organization in the world has endorsed the use of GMOs. Two trillion meals have been served with no harm done. Hawai‘i seniors have the longest life expectancy in the nation.

Q. Do you think RoundUp is safe?

A. Yes.

Q. Why do you think RoundUp is safe?

A. We know that the herbicides we used 25 years ago were much more toxic. Today, we have the ability to detect minute amounts of chemicals, and we must put things into perspective. One could take a sample of sea water and detect gold. But that doesn’t mean we would invest money in a business to mine gold from the ocean. We farmers have been taught, over and over, that the dose makes the poison. We need to use common sense.

Q. In your 35 years of farming, what do you consider to be the most important trend that will affect our future?

A. The price of oil has quadrupled in the last 10 years, which has caused farmers’ costs to rise. Farmers cannot pass on their costs as efficiently as others can. Farmers are price takers, rather than price makers. Because it is a finite resource, the oil price will steadily rise and food price will steadily rise as well.

But we can leverage our sun resource with new biotech solutions. We can take advantage of our year-round growing season and lower our cost to control pests and diseases and therefore lower the cost of food production. This will increase our Big Island residents’ discretionary spending, which makes up two-thirds of our economy. By doing this, we take care of all of us, not just a few of us.

Q. What do you suggest?

A. Defer Bill 113 and form a committee of stakeholders and experts to focus on Big Island solutions to future food security. It should not be political. It should be a solution that takes care of all of us, not just a few of us.

Food Security, Peak Oil, Sustainability

How Hawaii Farmers Can Be Competitive & Make Money

June 19, 2013 Richard Ha 2 Comments

Richard Ha writes:

Nitrogen is the basis of protein production. But here in Hawai‘i, farmers have no control over nitrogen fertilizer costs.

What if Hawai‘i farmers had stable and affordable nitrogen costs, and therefore our products had a competitive advantage over imported foods? Then farmers would make money, and farmers would farm.

There is a lot going on in the area of ammonia production. Iowa State University has committed to doing research in this area.

Hawaii can build on the knowledge gained as we find a way to make ammonia fertilizer from electricity that is now being “curtailed” (thrown away).

If we can get to urea, it is a short step to blending so that it is available for most uses.

From Wikipedia:

Urea or carbamide is an organic compound with the chemical formula C O(N H₂)₂.
The molecule has two —NH₂ groups joined by a carbonyl (C=O) functional group.

Urea serves an important role in
the metabolism of
nitrogen-containing compounds by animals and is the main nitrogen-containing
substance in the urine
of mammals. It is a
colorless, odorless solid, highly soluble in water and practically non-toxic (LD₅₀ is 15 g/kg
for rat). Dissolved in water, it is neither acidic nor alkaline. The body uses it
in many processes, the most notable one being nitrogen excretion. Urea is
widely used in fertilizers
as a convenient source of nitrogen. Urea is also an important raw material for the chemical industry.

Not no can. CAN!!

Geothermal

Testimony to OHA Supporting Geothermal

April 17, 2013 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

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.

Biofuel, Geothermal, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Very Simple Explanation of ‘Energy Return on Investment’

March 4, 2013 Richard Ha 1 Comment

Richard Ha writes:

Every organism, organization and even civilization needs surplus energy or it goes extinct.

When a mama cheetah catches an antelope, for instance, she needs to get enough energy from consuming that antelope to take care of her kids.

Let’s say all the antelopes are very skinny, and the energy she gets from eating a skinny antelope only gives her enough energy to make one more sprint, and that’s all.

That would be described as an "energy return on investment," an EROI, ratio of 1-1. She has no excess energy available to do anything but catch her next meal. That would be a very scary existence: She would have to catch an antelope on every single sprint, or her species would go extinct.

But if the antelopes got fatter, and the cheetah could make two sprints from eating one antelopes, we would call this an EROI of 2-1.

When the cheetah could make five runs from eating one antelope, things would be starting to look better (EROI 5-1). She would have energy left over to do more than just survive. She could spend time washing and playing with the kids.

At an EROI of 10 to 1, she could send the kids to grad school; things would be wonderful.

At an EROI of 30 to 1, the cheetah population would start to grow. The cheetahs would move into condominiums and take vacations in Hawai‘i.

So what does this mean in real life? Here’s some history.

In the 1930s, we could extract 100 barrels of oil from the ground by using the energy we got from one barrel of oil. That’s an EROI of 100-1.

By 1970, we were only getting 30 barrels of oil from the use of one barrel (an EROI of 30-1).

And in 2013, it’s around 10 barrels of oil (EROI 10-1).

Tar sands is around 5-1.

And biofuels are less than 3-1. Some biofuels (for example, alcohol from corn) are barely more than 1-1. You can see why putting our money and efforts into biofuels hardly makes sense.

Especially when you realize that geothermal, as we have in Hawai‘i, appears to have an EROI ratio of 11-1. It’s also significant to note that this rate won’t change anytime soon. The Big Island will be over the “hot spot,” which creates our geothermal conditions, for 500,000 to 1 million years.

Here is an article about the minimum EROI a sustainable society must have, by Charles A.S. Hall, Stephen Balogh and David J. R. Murphy.

What don’t we understand about this?

Biofuel, Geothermal, Government

Should Farmers Grow Biofuels Instead of Food?

March 2, 2012 Richard Ha

Should farmers grow biofuels instead of food?

This is a fundamental question that our society will need to answer. How much do we value food production?

When farmers look at rising and uncontrolled oil prices, and are not able to raise their prices to keep up, the message they get is that our society does not, fundamentally, value farmers.

One thing that can help our farmers is geothermal – because it is cheap and its price is stable. Having cheap electricity bills would mean that the people who are the farmers’ customers will have discretionary income, which they can then use to help support farmers.

Every day I talk to many people who are very fearful about rising electricity and gas prices.

Mayor Billy Kenoi has thrown down the gauntlet. He is saying: “We have geothermal; why aren’t we using it?”

I agree with the mayor. Geothermal can help the folks that are on the verge of having their lights turned off. It’s truly about the effect on real people.

Geothermal, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

Tverberg: ‘Businessweek Gets It Wrong’

February 6, 2012 Richard Ha

Here is a link to an article by Gail Tverberg. As I’ve said before, I cannot find fault with Gail’s analyses.

Businessweek Gets it Wrong—Everything You Know About Peak Oil is ‘Not’ Wrong

Posted on February 6, 2012

On January 26, Bloomberg Businessweek printed an editorial by Charles Kenney titled, “Everything You Know About Peak Oil Is Wrong.” This editorial reflects several common misunderstandings.

According to Kenney:

Titled Limits to Growth, their report suggested the world was heading toward economic collapse as it exhausted the natural resources, such as oil and copper, required for economic production. The report forecast that the world would run out of new gold in 2001 and petroleum by 2022, at the latest.

Limits to Growth gives a table that might be interpreted to show that oil and gold new extraction will be exhausted by the dates indicated. The book is careful to explain that the situation is more complicated, though.

I agree that it is about the cost of oil and its consequences. I try to find workarounds that can help us here in Hawai‘i. Geothermal is one of those workarounds.

Peak Oil: Preaching to the Laupahoehoe Choir

January 27, 2012 Richard Ha

Last night, I spoke at the Laupahoehoe Community Association meeting and shared the perspective I have gained from watching the world oil supply subject evolve over a short five years.

I related how I have attended four Peak Oil conferences, most recently as Hawai‘i County’s representative. The first thing I learned was that the world has been using twice as much oil as it has been finding for 20 to 30 years – a trend that continues.

Five years ago, oil prices were supply driven. When supply was restricted, oil prices rose, and when oil supply resumed, prices fell.

Last year, that correlation fundamentally changed. We now have a demand problem. And the demand is coming from the new economies: China, India and others.

That’s why, during this recession, we still have $100 per barrel oil. Unlike during the last 150 years, supply cannot seem to keep up with demand. If you are a subscriber to Nature magazine, or don’t mind becoming one, you can read a good article about that here.

Oil’s tipping point has passed

The economic pain of a flattening supply will trump the environment as a reason to curb the use of fossil fuels, say James Murray and David King.

…There is less fossil-fuel production available to us than many people believe. From 2005 onwards, conventional crude-oil production has not risen to match increasing demand. We argue that the oil market has tipped into a new state, similar to a phase transition in physics: production is now ‘inelastic’, unable to respond to rising demand, and this is leading to wild price swings…. Read the rest here

World oil supply is naturally declining at approximately five percent, meaning we need to find the equivalent of a Saudi Arabia every two to three years. Clearly we have not been doing that, nor is it likely we will do that.

To make matters worse, oil-exporting countries are forced to use more of the oil resource in their own countries or the people will revolt. Sooner or later, oil-exporting countries will keep all its oil for its own people. All the signs indicate that we have much less time than we think.

I told the folks that most of us, except the native Hawaiians, were immigrants. We all dream of a better future for our children and grandchildren, and rising oil prices are a threat to that dream.

We are very lucky, though, to have an indigenous alternative – Geothermal. Generating electricity from geothermal costs approximately 10 cents per kilowatt hour, while generating electricity from oil (at $100 per barrel) costs more than 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Geothermal-generated electricity prices will be stable for generations, while oil prices will keep on rising.

I was preaching to the choir. They wanted to know what could be done. I told them to contact their legislators and that I would make sure to keep in contact with their organization.

Geothermal, Renewable Energy Sources

About the Hawaii Island Economic Summit

January 18, 2012 Richard Ha 2 Comments

On Friday, I attended the Kona/Kohala Chamber of Commerce’s Hawai‘i Island Economic Summit.

One of the questions during an energy session I attended was whether Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi’s vision of “100 percent renewable energy by 2015” is reasonable.

I replied with some facts:

Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) estimates that it has 200MW of geothermal power at its present site.
At peak use, the Big Island uses less than 200MW.
Right now, PGV is authorized to produce 60MW.
Last time it took them just six months to get authorization from the Planning Commission.
That would leave three and a half months for building the needed production units.

This is doable. What we need is the will to do it.

A description of the Economic Summit:

This Summit will consist of a morning panel “conversation” comprised of five to six guest thinkers and leaders who will discuss their work, ideas that inspire them and what they see as the future for Hawai‘i Island. Confirmed speakers include Dr. Earl Bakken, engineer, businessman, philanthropist, inventor of the pacemaker; William P. Kenoi, Mayor of Hawai‘i County; Sanjeev Bhagowalia, Director of the newly created State Office of Information Management and Technology, Robert Pacheco, President and Naturalist Guide, Hawaii Forest & Trail and Michele Saito, President of Farmers Insurance Hawaii. Moderator for this panel will be Steven Petranik, editor of Hawaii Business magazine.

Our luncheon keynote speaker is Eric Saperston, acclaimed film director and producer, successful author and award-winning speaker and storyteller. Eric is Chief Creative Officer for the ‘inspire-tainment’ company, Live in Wonder, a forward thinking experiential company on the cutting edge of communication to ignite, inspire and enliven the world.

Eric’s story:

Dr. Earl Bakken talked about his manifesto (read about June and I visiting him at his request to discuss geothermal), which includes inspiring kids to use a live cam during the building of the Thirty Meter Telescope, the development of geothermal and Ku‘oko‘a, as well as building a world-class hospital in Waimea.

West Hawaii Today wrote about the summit.

Geothermal, Renewable Energy Sources

What the Geothermal Working Group Found

January 11, 2012 Richard Ha

Advantages of geothermal:

It is an indigenous resource
It generates revenue for the state
It generates community benefits
It provides stable power
It is less than half the cost of any of the renewable energy alternatives.
The Big Island will be over the geothermal “hot spot” for 500,000 to 1 million years

I want to share some highlights of the Geothermal Working Group’s final report.

Page 10, Revenues derives from geothermal:

Page 12:

IV. Recommended Steps for Hawaii State Legislators

– Make the allocation of geothermal royalties more transparent to show how benefits come back to the community. Designate the records of the allocations to be public domain.

– Establish a community advisory board to offer suggestions to the DLNR about how royalties generated by geothermal power plants are spent. The advisory board should be members of the communities that host existing or future geothermal power plants and/or those who are most impacted by the development of geothermal energy.

– Encourage the DLNR to use geothermal royalties to identify promising geothermal sites and to further develop the resource.

– In light of the probability that oil will reach $200 per barrel (Lloyds of London), the legislature is requested to commission a study to show the economic impact of various prices of oil.

– Facilitate development of geothermal with a critical review of the geothermal permitting process, regulatory capabilities, and possible investment incentives.

Page 5:

The Geothermal Working Group’s principal findings

– Geothermal is a renewable resource indigenous to the island of Hawaii that is dissociated from the price volatility of petroleum fuels.

– Geothermal can be a key component in a diversified energy portfolio for Hawaii County, both for the electrical grid and for transportation.

– In Hawaii, geothermal is a firm-energy resource at lower cost than fossil fuel. – Developing multiple geothermal plants is the most prudent approach.

– Geothermal has the potential to supply baseload electricity; long term reliability and the ability to supply grid management services (currently supplied by conventional fossil-fueled power plants) must be demonstrated in order to consider geothermal as the primary energy resource.

– With geothermal power plants, agricultural fertilizers, hydrogen, oxygen, and business-enterprise power can be produced for off-peak rates during the hours of curtailed electrical demand.

Page 9:

Overview

Geothermal energy can be developed to become the cheapest form of baseload power for Hawaii County. There are no importation or storage costs. Using geothermal as the primary source of baseload power will permit the county’s businesses to be more competitive with the rest of the world. Using geothermal as the primary source of baseload power will also help folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder—those who struggle with the cost of services.

In addition to stability and affordability, geothermal can leave less of an environmental impact than the commercially-available baseload power sources of electricity. There are no greenhouse gases, emissions and no oil spill risks.

The lower rates of off-peak geothermal electricity encourage the production of ammonia locally. Ammonia is an efficient hydrogen carrier that can be used to power internal combustion engines and as an aid to local agriculture as fertilizer. Light-industry business parks constructed near geothermal energy plants can use excess heat as a resource for heating vegetable and tropical flower hothouses, drying wood, and drying fish.

Benefits of geothermal energy to the community include sharing in geothermal royalties. In accordance with state law, the geothermal royalties are paid directly to the Department of Land and Natural Resources who allocate the royalties in three ways:

1. Department of Land and Natural Resources receives 50% 2. County of Hawaii receives 30% 3. Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) receives 20%

Potential adverse impacts are listed below:

– Interference with worship of the Goddess Pele – Interference with certain Native Hawaiian practices – Rainforest destruction – Possible health and safety impacts – Disruption of the way of life for nearby residents – Hydrogen sulfide and other air quality issues – Noise – Increased strain on an inadequate infrastructure – Impact on native fauna and flora

Geothermal, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

If We Spend All Our Money on Electricity…

January 9, 2012 Richard Ha 1 Comment

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.