Plans for an interisland electrical cable linking Oahu with wind-farm turbines on Lanai and Molokai have pitted island versus island. However, it also resulted in talk of an ultimate statewide power grid.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie now has proposed creation of a framework for such a broad network and the Legislature should give the go-ahead.

Abercrombie told lawmakers last week that his proposal "does not ensure that there will be an interisland cable" and that’s a politically understandable statement at this point. However, the state would be derelict in underestimating the feasibility of a statewide power-sharing system that could drastically lower the dependence of imported oil on the islands. Currently, each island has its own grid and its own electricity rate, which is rapidly becoming too steep for ordinary people to afford.

A $600 million, 65-mile submarine transmission cable connecting Long Island Sound and New Jersey is proof that such an undersea system can work. At its dedication in 2007, after taking six years to complete, the three-cable, 660-mega- watt Neptune Project was estimated to have saved the Long Island utility $20 million in its first 100 days of operation and is expected to save more than $1 billion over the following 20 years.

The World Bank has studied different ways that grids could connect Caribbean nations, according to Mark Glick, energy administrator in the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), and a state energy laboratory on the Big Island has lured representatives from Japan and China. "We have more in common with Japan and Okinawa, for example, than we do with any other part of the U.S.," he said.

Sharing of solar, wind, geothermal and ocean energies "may all contribute to powering our state, reducing the unpredictable increases in power costs caused by oil prices," DBEDT Director Richard D. Lum told House committees last Friday. He pointed out that the islands already are interconnected with cables for telephone and data.

The bill would not immediately give the go-ahead to a statewide power grid. It would allow a cable developer to submit a bid to Hawaiian Electric Co. and DBEDT. The state Public Utilities Commission would select the cable developer, which would need to prepare an environmental impact statement before applying for federal, state and county permits to begin building the cable network. Eventually, the PUC would determine a statewide electricity rate.

PUC chairwoman Hermina Morita says the proposed wind farms on Molokai and Lanai "should be viewed as the opportunity to carefully examine how an interisland cable may be mutually beneficial to multiple islands throughout the state."

Last year’s Legislature rejected an earlier version of the bill after opponents complained it was a vehicle to promote specific development of wind power on Molokai and Lanai. The current bill mentions neither a specific island nor a type of renewable energy technology. Abercrombie’s promise that the process will be "to the benefit of everyone in Hawaii," embracing all technologies available, is compelling and deserves legislative approval.