The lackluster start to the Hawaii Bioenergy kickoff meeting

Much has been said of the urgent need to shift Hawai‘i’s 95 percent dependence on imported fuels for its transportation and electrical generation needs. In recent months, skyrocketing oil prices have produced sticker shock at the gas pump and on our electric bills. They’ve also plunged ATA and Aloha Airlines into collapse.

Crude oil prices topped $100 a barrel for the first time on Jan. 2, and have quickly climbed to a record high of $135 a barrel. That means Hawai‘i will be sending more than $4 billion of its energy dollars out of the state this year. In terms of bolstering our economy, safeguarding our energy security and boosting self-sufficiency, exploring the local potential to produce biofuels seems logical.

Hence the importance last week when the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) convened a meeting in the basement auditorium of the capital building in Honolulu to start on the Hawaii Bioenergy Master Plan. But public testimony towards the end of the day left the impression that many are concerned the effort is too slow and not heading in the right direction.

Hawai‘i’s leaders have already taken some significant steps to implement bioenergy in our state’s portfolio of fuel sources. In August 2006, Governor Linda Lingle called the Governor’s Biofuel Summit. The daylong discussion of opportunities and challenges cruised along well enough until Kauai Representative Mina Morita asked, “What are we doing to address food security?” The silence that followed hung in the room like volcanic haze on a windless day.

Indeed, the question of using valuable agricultural lands and water for fuel rather than food is being debated worldwide. We currently grow less than 10 percent of the food we consume, and rising transportation costs have already led to higher prices at the grocery store. To many, the most important need is being self-sufficient in feeding ourselves, rather than filling the tanks of SUVs or running our air-conditioning in the months and years to come.

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(Source: Rob Parsons, Maui Time Weekly)