Renewable resources abound. Markets exist. Time now to strategize, Kaua‘i representatives said yesterday.
Hawai‘i Gov. Linda Lingle last week signed two bills that provide funds to develop a state bioenergy master plan and study energy efficient transportation.
The legislation calls on experts across the board to explore strategies, such as ethanol production, that make the state more energy independent.
“Anytime we can get more information on how to conserve energy, we’re in,” said Rep. Jimmy Tokioka, D-15th District.
The state needs a plan to know how to integrate the electricity and transportation sectors and what the best crops are to produce alternative fuels, said Rep. Mina Morita, D-14th District.
“It takes careful coordination to bring biofuels to the market,” she said.
Hawai‘i has fallow agricultural land that could be used to grow crops for energy. This would cut the amount of fuel the state imports, now at more than 90 percent, Morita said.
“We have to look at not only growing the ag crop, but how to take it into biofuel production,” Morita said.
The Legislature has already created a market, she added, with a law passed last year requiring ethanol in gasoline.
House Bill 1008 appropriated $300,000 to establish the Hawai‘i natural energy institute of the University of Hawai‘i and creates the energy
systems development special fund for the development of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies.
In addition to requiring periodic evaluations, the bill mandates the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to develop and prepare a bioenergy master plan that sets the course for the coordination and implementation of policies and procedures to develop a bioenergy industry in Hawai‘i.
In terms of ethanol production, Kaua‘i is already ahead of the learning curve, Morita said. No time will be wasted researching what crops to grow or how to grow them because the island continues to operate a sugar mill on the Westside owned by Gay & Robinson.
Producing sugar for ethanol instead of food could take the sugar industry to a new level by making it an energy company, Morita said.
Ethanol plants have yet to break ground in Hawai‘i, but an Associated Press story yesterday states that Kauai Ethanol plans to start construction on a $35 million facility in Kaumakani on the island’s Westside later this summer.
“A move toward biofuels keeps ag land in ag production,” she said. “With our over dependency on imported fuels, this is a way to address that overdependency and a way to diversify our energy portfolio and our economy.”
House Bill 869 appropriates $50,000 to the Hawai‘i Energy Policy Forum to study energy efficient transportation strategies.
The funding “gets stakeholders to the table,” Morita said.
“You need a critical lobbying force at the Legislature so things continue to move forward … instead of always trying to reinvent the wheel,” she said.
For more information, visit www.hawaiienergypolicy.hawaii.edu.
• Nathan Eagle, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or neagle@kauaipubco.com.
