Liquid natural gas can be good option

Overly reliant on imported oil as its main source of energy, Hawaii has set the laudable goal of receiving 40 percent from renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal by 2030. That should not preclude a less expensive fossil fuel from being used for power generation, and natural gas can become an obvious player. That, coupled with the crucial need to keep consumer energy costs in check, make a good case for approval of liquified natural gas (LNG) here, potentially to develop onto a larger scale.

Hawaii Gas, formerly known as The Gas Co., is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve that path so it can begin shipping natural gas, in liquid form, in refrigerated tanks later this year from the West Coast. It would be converted back to its gaseous form at Honolulu Harbor’s Pier 38 near Nimitz Highway and injected into its existing Hawaii pipeline.

State Department of Transportation concerns have focused on the facility’s proximity to vehicles on Nimitz and on the roadway that runs through the adjacent Domestic Commercial Fishing Village. However, a company attorney said company officials have met with the department and satisfied those concerns. If these and other safety concerns about transport and regasification are adequately resolved, LNG deserves a niche here.

Hawaii residents paid 34.7 cents a kilowatt hour last year for electricity, 80 percent of which is produced by burning oil. Coal and natural gas power homes on the mainland, and the national average is 11.8 cents a kilowatt hour.

Hawaii Gas, a subsidiary of a New York-based infrastructure conglomerate, has 68,000 customers using synthetic natural gas and propane made locally from crude oil derivatives. Jeffrey Kissel, its president and chief executive officer, said the company is "talking less than a year and certainly less than five years to scale it up," with potential customers consisting of military, other utilities and "heavy industries."

The use of natural gas in Hawaii would be "strictly as a replacement fuel," state Energy Administrator Mark Glick told the Star-Advertiser’s Alan Yonan Jr. "It’s something that should be considered … only if it can be done in such a way that it is a firm power source that could support greater renewable energy penetration." Hawaii now is the only state without a natural-gas-fueled power plant.

The Blue Planet Foundation and the national office of the Sierra Club oppose the Hawaii Gas plan because of concern that it would run counter to the state’s push to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel. However, we see the use of natural gas as providing a supplemental, cheaper option for today’s and near-term needs, not as a disruption of the state’s push to increase the use of renewable energy sources.

Hawaiian Electric Co. has been fairly quiet about the Hawaii Gas plan, a spokesman saying, "The use of natural gas for a fuel is a state policy decision." HECO should be prepared for a time when natural gas could be integrated into its power plants.

Electricity has long been absurdly expensive in Hawaii and has been getting worse. Hawaii customers spent $3.15 billion on electricity last year — 5.3 percent of the state’s gross domestic product, up from $1.17 billion, or 2.4 percent of the state’s GDP, in 1997. That trend should be turned around by the use of cheaper fossil fuels as well as local renewable sources.