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Hawaii’s energy outlook is all over the place
Slowly but inexorably, Hawaii’s energy infrastructure is evolving to a point unheard of just a few years ago. Giant windmills have popped up on Oahu’s North Shore, with the promise of more to come. HawaiiGAS wants to import large quantities of the latest trend, cheap natural gas from hydraulic fracturing. Solar energy tax credits have proven so lucrative to companies — and so costly to government — that the Abercrombie administration is trimming them back. Geothermal energy on the Big Island is expanding. And now Tesoro plans to close its Kapolei oil refinery, which would be replaced by a terminal for refined energy products.
It’s a brave new world, coming soon.
Zipping along, in Hawaii and everywhere else
Humans have long coveted the ability to fly. Though most would never be as fatally careless as the ill-fated Icarus, that soaring sensation can be heady stuff.
No doubt part of that thrill of flying has helped boost the popularity of zip-line tours, in Hawaii and worldwide. According to a state auditor’s report, there are more than 300 zip line tours in the U.S. and Canada today, up from nine in 2005. It’s mostly a self-regulating industry, which, for the most part, seems to be working. The more faint of heart, though, might say that therein lies the risk-taking.