Life
of the Land's Clean Energy Now! Campaign
HAWAI`I is blessed with
every known renewable resource. We have sun,
wind and a deep cold ocean. We have some of the greatest photovoltaic,
wind, ocean wave, ocean thermal and sea water air conditioning
conditions in the world. No other place on earth has the opportunities
that we have in becoming energy self-sufficient. Yet what have we done
with this opportunity?
In 1970, 8% of
the electricity generated in Hawai`i came from renewable
energy resources. The 1978 Hawai`i Constitutional Convention proposed
constitutional clauses on agricultural and energy self-sufficiency. The
voters adopted these provisions. As the Legislative Reference Bureau
explained to the 1979 Legislature -- the agricultural self-sufficiency
clause required subsequent legislative enabling language, while the
energy self-sufficiency clause did not. In the 28 years
since 1978, we have gone from 8% renewable to 7%
renewable. Meanwhile, 18% of the energy used in the world comes from
renewable energy resources, with the caveat that all fossils and some
renewables are undesired.
Life of the Land has actively
intervened in numerous energy actions over the past 3+ decades.
We won a landmark case before the Hawai`i Supreme Court in 1975 when we
appealed HECO's 1971 rate case. The Hawai`i Supreme Court ruled that
aggrieved parties who exhaust their administrative remedies have a
fundamental right to sue. In addition, the court ruled that the Public
Utilities Commission had improperly approved making HECO ratepayers pay
for a HECO advertising campaign designed to encourage the use of
electricity.
Life
of the Land is been in a number of administrative actions (contested
case hearings, dockets) before the Hawai`i Public Utilities Commission.
Currently
we are in five dockets: Statewide Energy Efficiency Programs (DN
05-0069); HECO's proposed East O`ahu Transmission Project (DN 03-0417);
Distributed Generation (DN 03-0371); HECO's Long-Term Planning
(Integrated Resource Planning 2006-25; DN 03-0253) and HECO's Proposed 2009 Fossil Fuel
Power Plant at Campbell Industrial Park (DN 05-0069)
Life of the Land's Hawai`i Energy
Blog covers current events ** Life of the Land's 10 Point Energy Plan
Climate
Change is Real
An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, pages
30-37.
Image:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/Revelle/revelle_2.html
This is the image that
first
caused me to think about - and then to
become focused on - global warming. It was shown in the mid-1960s to a
small undergraduate class I took taught by ... Roger Revelle.
Professor Revelle was the first
scientist to propose measuring CO2 in
the Earth's atmosphere. He and the scientist he hired to run the study,
Charles David Keeling, began taking daily measurements in the middle of
the Pacific Ocean over the big island of Hawaii in 1958.
After the first few years, they
had enough data to produce this graphic
image, which Revelle showed to my class. It was clear even at this
early stage of their experiment that the concentration of CO2
throughout the Earth's atmosphere was going up at a significant rate.
I asked Revelle why the line
marking CO2 concentration goes up sharply
and then down once each year. He explained that the vast majority of
the Earth's land mass ... is north of the equator. Thus, the vast
majority of the Earth's vegetation is also north of the equator.
As a result, when the Northern
Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun
during the spring and summer, the leaves come out, and as they breathe
in CO2, the amount of CO2 decreases worldwide.
When the Northern hemisphere is
tilted away from the Sun in the fall
and winter, the leaves fall, and as they disgorge CO2, the amount of
CO2 in the atmosphere goes back up again.
It's as if the entire Earth takes
a big breath in and out once each
year.
The same pattern of steadily
increasing concentrations of CO2 that was
visible after the first several year's of Revelle's measurements has
continued year by year for almost a half-century. This remarkable and
patiently collected daily record now stands as one of the most
important series of measurements in the history of science.
The pre-industrial concentration
of CO2 was 280 parts per million. In
2005,that level, measured above Mauna Loa, was 381 parts per million.
Boiling
Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists
Have Fueled the Climate Crisis -- And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster, by Ross Gelbspan (2004)
By late 2003, the signals were
undeniable: Global climate change is threatening to spiral out of
control. (page 1)
Confronted by the steel wall of
resistance of the fossil-fuel lobby and their political allies, most
climate activists and sympathetic politicians have retreated into
approaches that are dismally inadequate to the magnitude of the
challenge.
Around the country, advocates are
working to get people to drive less, turn down their thermostats and
reduce their energy use. Unfortunately, while many environmental
problems are susceptible to lifestyle changes, climate change is not
one of them. (page 127)
Several of the country's leading
national environmental groups are promoting limits for future
atmospheric carbon levels that are the best they think they can
negotiate. But while those limits may be politically realistic, they
would likely be environmentally catastrophic.
Most advocates, moreover, are
relying on goals and mechanisms that were proposed about a decade ago,
before the true urgency of the climate crisis became apparent. ... But
these goals have been rendered obsolete by the escalating pace of
climate change. ...
Virtually all the approaches by
activists in the United States, moreover, are domestic in nature. They
ignore both the world's developing countries and, equally important
from the standpoint of national security, the oil-producing nations of
the Middle East. Ultimately, even if the United States, Europe, Canada,
Australia and Japan were to cut emissions dramatically, those cuts
would be overwhelmed by the coming increase of carbon from India,
China, Mexico, Nigeria and all the other developing countries
struggling to stay ahead of poverty.
Many alternative approaches rely
on market-based solutions because their proponents believe that, in an
age of market fundamentalism, no other approach can gain political
traction. Unfortunately, nature's laws are not about supply and demand;
they are about limits, thresholds and surprises. ...
Many groups justify the minimalist
goals of making people more energy efficient as the first phase in
building a political base for more aggressive action. In the past, that
pattern has been successful in developing various movements. In the
case of climate change, however, nature's timetable is very different
from that of political organizers. Unfortunately, the signals from the
planet tell us we do not have the luxury of waiting another generation
to allow for the orderly maturation of a movement. (pages 127-28)
The solution to the climate crisis
involves a high-stakes battle with big coal, big oil, and the immense
financial resources and political levers at their disposal. (page 130)
The fossil fuel lobby has hijacked
America’s energy and political policies. (page 136)
The vast majority of climate
groups shun confrontation and work instead to get people to reduce
their personal energy footprints. That can certainly help spread
awareness of the issue. ... The mismatch between the magnitude of the
problem and the seductiveness of easy -- and illusory -- solutions
reflects a degree of denial among even the most earnest of advocates.
(page 137)
Activists compromise. Nature does
not. (page 146)
Stepping back, it is worth
repeating that the real economic issue in rewiring the globe with clean
energy is not cost. The real economic issue is whether the world has a
big enough labor force to accomplish the task in time to meet nature’s
deadline. A properly funded global transition to clean energy
would create millions of jobs in poor countries and substantially raise
living standards in the developing world. It is an article of faith
among development economists that energy investments in poor countries
create far more wealth and jobs than investments in any other sector. ... Were the United States to spearhead
a wholesale transfer of clean energy to developing countries, that
would do more than anything else in the long term to address the
economic desperation that underlies anti-U.S. sentiment. (page
178)
Electricity
from Renewable Energy
Iceland 100% La Desirade (France) 100% Fiji 79.6% Norway
76% Samsoe (Denmark) 75% Austria 72% Pellworm (Germany)
66% Reunion (France) 56% Sweden 55%
Dominica 48% Latvia 47% Flores Island (Azores, Portugal)
42% Samoa 38.5% Sao Miguel Island (Azores, Portugal)
35% Faeroe Islands (Denmark) 35% St Vincent and the
Grenadines 32.8%
California 31% Slovenia 31% Marie Galante Island (Guadeloupe,
France) 30% Corsica 30% Miquelon (St Pierre and
Miquelon, France) 29% Portugal 29% Hawaii Island 29%
Romania 28% Finland 28% Turkey 24%
World
18% Hawai`i State 8%
(Sources: United Nations; US Energy Information Administration;
European Environmental Agency; Renewable Energy on Small Islands; The
Guardian; Highlands and Islands Enterprise Network; Renewable Energy
Policy Network for the 21st Century)
Life of the Land
is a
Hawaii-based, Hawaii-focused environmental and community action group.
Founded in 1970, the mission of Life of the Land is to preserve and
protect the life of the land through sustainable land use and energy
policies and to promote open government through research, education,
advocacy and, when necessary, litigation. We believe that people are
part of the environment. We are known for research, research, research.
We cover complex issues such as genetic engineering, climate change,
and quality of life issues. LOL is a 501(c)3 charitable organization.
We do not attend fundraisers, testify for/against political and/or
administrative candidates, nor do we rank candidates. We work on issues
not people.
Contact: Life of the Land, 76
North King Street, Suite 203, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817, Email:
lifeoftheland@hotmail.com Executive Director: Henry Curtis,
henry.lifeoftheland@gmail.com * Assistant Executive Director: Kat
Brady,
katbrady@hotmail.com
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