Last month Felicity, and NY Times writer and I, drove around the south side of the Big Island from Kona to Hilo in search of alternative energy.
Story can be read here on the NY Times site and the multimedia piece can be found here.
Good stuff all around as it made you think about alternative energy sources and the controversy that surrounds it. Hawaiian activist are against geothermal plants mining steam to convert into energy…yet…the geothermal plant is on dangerous ground as they are built in the rift zone where lava from Kilauea could easily flow.
Ironically, the geothermal plant can harvest tons of energy but still have to deliver their product via HELCO. HELCO has the monopoly on the energy transportation lines hence an inflated price of energy for all the users in Hawaii.
We could look for other alternatives like wind, wave, etc…but we run the gamut of pissing off some group who say we’d disrupt bird migration patterns, surf breaks, or Pele herself. Maybe we should stop breathing…