Life of the Land's Ten Point Energy Plan

1. Disclose Conflict of Interest at the State Legislature
During the last state legislative session, five employees of Hawaiian Electric Industries remained on HEI payrolls while working in the legislative offices of chairs of important legislative committees. These individuals were not identified. Taxpayers who came into these offices to talk story were not informed about these company plants. At a minimum, these ''employees'' and the legislators who employ them should report the arrangement to the Campaign Spending Commission and the State Ethics Commission. These records should be public and available on-line.

2. Use Reasonable Definitions
Hawai`i's definition of ''renewable energy'' includes heat recovered from boiling oil, burning plastic and other fossil fuels in garbage-to-energy facilities, and energy efficiency. Hawai`i's definition of ''percentage'' is bizarre. Hawai`i can be 2000% renewable without any renewables and Hawai`i can be -50% renewable with sizeable renewables. Currently a wind system plugged into the grid on the customers side of the meter increases the renewable energy percentage more than the same system plugged in on the utility side of the grid. These definitions need to be cleaned up.

"Renewable energy" should mean energy produced using a technology that relies on a resource that is being consumed at a harvest rate at or below its natural regeneration rate. Renewable Energy does not mean using oil, gas, coal or other fossil fuels. When energy is produced using a combined technology, the BTUs of fossil fuel used must be subtracted from the total BTUs produced.

Percentage should mean a proportion multiplied by 100; a fraction or ratio with 100 understood as the denominator; for example, 0.98 equals a percentage of 98.

The electrical system should consist of renewable energy (RE), fossil fuel energy (FF), energy efficiency offsets (EE), and energy displacements (ED). An example of each type is wind, oil, solar water heaters, and sea water air conditioning, respectively. By definition and common sense: RE% + FF% + EE% + ED% = 100%.

3. Promote Energy Efficiency
The most cost-effective method of decreasing the use of fossil fuels is through energy efficiency. This should not be done by some arbitrary procedure: the first building meeting the highest Green Buildings standard is NELHA Gateway facility which sits empty and pays the utility for electricity. Real energy efficiency can be done by adopting county model energy codes, by encouraging building owners to have windows that open to take advantage of the trade winds, by allowing clotheslines and solar water heaters in condos, by installing solar water heaters, etc.

4. Create an Energy Efficiency Utility
Electric utility companies operates under conflicting objectives. An electric utility must sell electricity to earn a profit -- while providing customers with energy efficiency devices designed to reduce their electricity usage. The utility focuses on its primary money earner. For example, HECO evaluates alternative long range plans with built in requirements that the next source of power is a fossil fuel burning power plant. This eliminates serious consideration of alternatives: renewable energy, energy efficiency, etc. Creating an Energy Efficiency Utility would allow the electric utility to focus on selling electricity and the energy efficiency utility to focus on reducing demand.

5. Provide Permanent Tax Credits
Permanent tax credits should be offered for residents and businesses who install renewable energy systems or energy efficiency devices on-site.

6. Strengthen the Public Utilities Commission (PUC)
In 1913 HECO was threatened with competition. In exchange for elimination of the threat, HECO agreed to be regulated. From 1913-c.2003 the PUC was under the thumb of the electric and telephone utilities. The PUC has now broken free. This independence should continue.

7. Reform the Division of Consumer Advocacy (DCA)
Hawai`i Revised Statutes states that the CA may do this and that, but their only requirement is that they promote renewable energy. Instead they are reactive and focus on business-as-usual. They only review utility proposals, and frequently sound more conservative than the utility. On only a few occasions have they taken positions contrary to that of the utilities. In legislative audits of 1961, 1975, 1989, and 2004, this reactive approach has been criticized. The CA needs to become the advocate of the consumer not the defender of the utility.

8. Account for Externalities
Externalities are costs or benefits that are not included in the market price of a good.  Pollution is an example of an externality cost if producers are not libel for the damages caused, and thus the price the good is sold for does not reflect cleanup costs associated with that product.  Education is an example of an externality benefit when members of society other than students benefit from a more educated population. In general, companies seek to shift costs from themselves to others to lower the cost of their goods and to increase their profit margins. In energy, the government pays $100Bs to guarantee Mid East oil is available and cheap. Climate change impacts are ignored. In order to evaluate resources with very different cost patterns (such as renewable energy which has a higher up-front cost and lower average costs than  fossil fuels) a true cost analysis must be done.

9. Deal with Climate Change
A carbon tax must be leveled on greenhouse gas emissions.

10. Separate Facts from Spin
The state is committing to hydrogen and ethanol -- however  they are only committing to small amounts of renewable hydrogen and biofuel experiments. Most hydrogen generated in the U.S. comes from fossil fuel.  Most ethanol comes from farming enterprises using high amounts of pesticides (oil), fertilizers (gas), farm equipment (diesel), and ethanol plants (oil, coal). Thus the state is green-washing fossil fuel, turning fossil fuel into sustainable green energy. This spin is unacceptable.


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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