CODEE MCDANIEL

October 23, 2008

October 20 marked a celebratory moment of progress in sustainable energy policy as Hawaii's largest utility company, Hawaiian Electric Companies, signed on to the state's Energy Agreement (EA). The EA is the product of legislation mandating clean, dependable, and self-sustaining energy, and the joint collaboration of Governor Linda Lingle and U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary, Alexander Karsner, in formulating the Hawai'i Clean Energy Initiative.

The small state of just over one million residents has committed itself to an ambitious and unprecedented goal that seventy percent of its electricity and transportation come from clean, renewable energy sources by 2030. To achieve this goal, the EA outlines procedures for improving mass transit, developing alternative fuels, requiring more fuel efficient vehicles, and ensuring equal burden sharing among ratepayers.

However, the primary thrust of the EA lie not in the sustainable policies it advances but rather in the standards it mandates. First, and perhaps most significantly, is the requirement that renewable portfolio standards (RPS), the standards establishing what percentage of electric utilities' power generation must come from renewable sources, be doubled to forty percent by 2030. The practical effect is that Hawaii's utility companies are left with no other option except to invest in the research and development of the state's renewable energy sources. These sources include biomass, geothermal, hydropower, ocean thermal energy conversion, solar energy, waves and ocean currents, and wind.

The second critical factor is that fossil fuel reliance is capped at thirty percent. The EA accurately reflects the need for Hawaii to generate its own renewable energy. Hawaii's dependence on fossil fuel is alarming; currently, seventy-seven percent of its energy is derived from imported oil sources and thirteen percent from imported coal sources. As a means to lessen this dependency, the EA "commits" Hawaiian Electric Companies to not construct any new coal plants, and requires the company to integrate 1,100 megawatts of renewable energy into the power supply and convert existing fossil fuel generators to biofuels using local crops.

Whether Hawaii is able to make the transition from energy dependence to independence will be an experiment the world watches for so infrequent is this type of revolutionary change proposed yet implemented.

Sources:

Haw. Rev. Stat. § 226--18(a)(1)--(3) (2000)

Hawai'i Clean Energy Initiative, 1 http://hawaii.gov/gov/energy/energy--initiatives.

State of Hawaii, Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, Energy Agreement Among the State of Hawaii, Division of Consumer Advocacy of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and the Hawaiian Electric Companies 18--19 (2008), http://hawaii.gov/gov/news/files/2008/october/state--HECO%20agreement%2010.20.08.pdf.

Jennifer Sudick, Isles Power up Clean--Energy Agreement, Honolulu Star Bulletin, at 1 (Oct. 21, 2008).

Mark Niesse, Hawaii Outlines Renewable Energy Goals, The Seattle Times, at 1 (Oct. 21, 2008).