Although its glossy cover showcases alternative energy sources, the new federal strategic plan for dealing with climate change is a rehash of the same old, same old.

Nuclear fusion and fission, biorefining, hydrogen and “clean coal” are just some of the technologies trotted out amid claims they “have the potential to transform our economy in fundamental ways and can address not just climate change, but energy security, air quality and other pressing needs,” according to the report, which was endorsed by a dozen or so federal agencies, the National Science Foundation and President George W. Bush.

In other words, those are the technologies that will be favored for some $3 billion annually in federal funding for climate-related research, development, demonstration and deployment projects.

“It’s a very, very costly system to continue the current fossil fuel paradigm,” says Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land. “We should be shifting to renewables and this plan completely discounts renewables.”

The report’s plan for reducing greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and climate change seems to be based entirely on capturing emissions and dumping them in underground caves or the ocean, Curtis observes. “Neither technology has been found to be safe.”

Curtis is particularly irked that the 223-page report makes just one reference to an energy source that could have huge potential for Hawai‘i: ocean power. But just because the feds dissed tidal power doesn’t mean that local power planners will, too.

Life of the Land is currently one of 11 parties participating in Public Utilities Commission (PUC) dockets related to the Hawaiian Electric Company’s proposal to build a 100- to 110-megawatt power plant at Campbell Industrial Park, and the group is dead set against another fossil fuel-burning facility.

While the various ocean power technologies advocated by Life of the Land are at different stages of readiness, they’re far from mere pipe dreams, Curtis asserts.

The most immediately viable is seawater air conditioning, which is already in use at Cornell University and in Sweden, Toronto and China, not to mention the John A. Burns School of Medicine. “It’s a proven technology,” Curtis says, with big implications for O‘ahu—40 percent of Waikiki’s electricity is used to cool hotel rooms, shops and restaurants and the University of Hawai‘i spends some $1.5 million each month for electricity, much of it used to run AC.

Curtis is also excited about wave power, which he says is “the most environmentally benign source of energy.” Locally, the technology is being tested at Kane‘ohe, as well as sites around the world. Rhode Island is slated to get the world’s first operational wave power system.

A study done a few years ago by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism determined the technology could supply about 60 percent of the state’s electrical generating needs, but Curtis says the figure is likely closer to 100 percent.

Yet another prospect is an ocean thermal energy conversion system that could be placed on an offshore barge and generate some 100 megawatts of power, Curtis says.

Although Life of the Land still supports solar and wind power, Curtis says the PUC is already familiar with those technologies. Instead, the group is using the HECO application to introduce witnesses who are familiar with other sources of renewable energy.

“I’m educating the PUC,” he says. Class is due to start Dec. 11, when the hearing begins.