Bottom line is green energy brings green money into Hawaii economy

It has been nearly five years since Hawaii launched the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) that set the ambitious goal of 70 percent clean energy by 2030.

HCEI made Hawaii a national leader in pursuing clean, renewable energy. And, as the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Organization meetings showed, we also have gained international stature as a place pursuing technology-neutral, data-driven, aspirational renewable energy objectives.

But high goals are not enough to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. Hawaii’s progress has been too slow. Three recent episodes reinforce my concerns.

First, in 2007 and 2008 the Legislature passed Acts 205 and 207 designed to facilitate the permitting and placement of renewable energy projects. But the implementation of these laws has lacked tenacious, forceful and persistent follow-though. Furthermore, the energy facilitator position set up under Act 207 has been vacant since last April.

Regrettably, these two laws did not streamline the numerous permitting steps a clean energy producer must go through. While Act 205 made energy permits a priority, other laws gave permitting priority to affordable housing, agriculture, and recycling facilities. When everything is a priority, nothing is.

Second, in 2009 I and my legislative colleagues passed Act 50, which allowed the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to recognize that ratepayers may have to pay a higher cost for electricity in order to encourage more renewable power. This law established a new policy that the money paid by a public utility to a clean energy producer should not be capped at 100 percent of the cost avoided by the utility for the equivalent fossil-fuel generated power.

Yet when the PUC had the opportunity to implement the new "just and reasonable rate" policy allowing Oceanlinx, an internationally recognized wave energy producer, to hook up to the Maui Electric Co., the PUC blinked and refused to establish such a rate.

Third, this year the Democrat-controlled state Legislature failed to pass the PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) bill that I sponsored. Enacting PACE is, to use a term from my grandchildren, a "no-brainer." This financing program allows homeowners and small businesses to lower their energy costs while creating green jobs, stimulating the economy and reducing the state’s dependence on fossil fuels.

PACE allows property owners to borrow funds to install renewable, clean energy generation on their home or commercial building and repay the loan through semi-annual county property tax assessments amortized over a 20-year repayment period. The liability attaches to the property, not the individual homeowner, since the next owner of the property will continue to receive the benefits of the energy improvements.

Similar programs already exist in 15 other states, including Colorado, New York and Texas. The concerns raised to legislators by mortgage bankers were misguided, since renewable energy upgrades increase the value of a home and the repayment of the home mortgage is not adversely impacted by PACE.

The bottom line is green energy brings green money into our economy. We have the opportunity in Hawaii to achieve our ambitious clean energy goals, successfully implement the renewable energy laws already on the books, and provide incentives and financial programs that allow homeowners and small business people to afford energy upgrades.

I envision a day when our islands enjoy clean, reliable and quiet wave energy, where homes and commercial buildings are generating their own power, and where our public utilities are truly public and no longer beholden to stockholders. I look forward to working with the citizens of Hawaii to make this vision a reality.