Plea for up to 50 MW of geothermal development in Hawaii
Power lines in Hawaii (source: flickr/ Quinn Dombrowski, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
27 Eki 2014
Richard Ha in behalf of the Big Island Community Coalition (BICC) steering committee sent a letter to the Hawaiian authorities to develop 50 MW of geothermal power in the islands.
The following is the testimony from the Big Island Community Coalition (BICC) steering committee sent to the Hawaii PUC earlier this month looking to expand geothermal power in Hawaii.
To: Chair Hermina Morita
Commissioner Michael Champley
Commissioner Lorraine Akiba
Hawaii Public Utilities Commission
Email: [email protected]
Re: Comments to PUC Docket: 2014-0183 (HECO/HELCO/MECO – PSIP: HELCO Power Supply Improvement Plan and PUC Docket: 2012-0092 (Geothermal 50 MW RFP for Hawaii Island)
Aloha PUC Commissioners,
The Big Island Community Coalition supports implementing 50MW of geothermal as soon as practicable. The high oil price case projected by the EIA 2014, predicts $150 per barrel oil by 2020. There is a direct correlation between oil usage and world GDP. A high oil price of $150 per barrel will adversely impact our tourism industry causing a severe recession.
Geothermal is one of the few ways available to mitigate high oil price. And, we need to move sooner rather than later.
Oil prices quadrupled in the last ten years and the folks who could pass on the costs did pass on the costs. Those who could not were the working homeless, kupuna on fixed income, single moms as well as others such as farmers who are price takers and not price makers.
The Big Island has the lowest median income of the counties. Our electricity rates have been 25% higher than Oahu’s for as long as we can remember. That high electricity rate acts like a giant regressive tax. We are able to turn that around by enabling more geothermal.
The 23% curtailed electricity from geothermal can support making hydrogen at an affordable cost. This will help solve the green ground transportation problem. And, curtailed electricity can be the basis for making nitrogen fertilizer, without which we cannot feed all the people.
Mahalo, Commissioners.
Richard Ha
President, Big Island Community Coalition
Source: Hamakua Springs Country Farms
