Tag Archives: Civil Beat

Geothermal, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

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.

Articles, Food Security, Games, Renewable Energy Sources

Richard Ha at Civil Beat

Civil Beat asked Richard to write some opinion pieces for them, and his 3-part series on energy and food security in Hawai‘i is running right now. You can click the titles to read the whole article.

Part 1:

Trying to be Safe by Doing Nothing is No Longer Safe 

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

I want to start by telling you who I am and what my values are. My mom is Okinawan, Higa from Moloka‘i, and my Pop was half Korean and half Hawaiian. His mother was Leihulu Kamahele. Our family land was down the beach at Maku‘u in Puna. We were very poor but didn’t know it….

 Read the rest

Part 2:

Expensive Electricity Threatens Hawaii’s Food Security

At the 2010 Peak Oil conference, held in Washington, D.C., a speaker pointed to a graph showing that oil is used for a very small portion of the U.S. mainland’s production of electricity.

He pointed out that Hawai‘i is responsible for a huge portion of the nation’s oil use. The U.S. mainland uses oil for less than 10 percent of its electrical generation, while Hawai‘i depends on oil for 76 percent of its electrical generation. So when oil prices rise, Hawai‘i’s electricity ratepayers are significantly more affected than mainland electricity ratepayers.

And as oil prices rise, any imported mainland product that has electricity usage imbedded in its production has a cost advantage over the same product produced in Hawai‘i. This is true for ice cream, bakery products and even jams and jellies….

Read the rest

Part 3:

What Works, Works

Farmers cut straight to the chase. We farmers are concerned about survival, the bottom line, people and the environment.

Although we do support maximizing other technologies available to us in Hawai‘i, here I am talking about “base power” electricity – stable, steady power. Eighty percent of our electricity needs to be stable, steady base power. Base power has the biggest impact on our electricity bills….

Read the rest