My Way or the Highway

SUBHEAD: Oahu is pushing the outer islands to support it's lifestyle even against their interests - with 200 40-story windmills.  

By Henry Curtis on 9 December 2010 for Disappeared News - (http://www.disappearednews.com/2010/12/my-way-or-highway.html)


Image above: The remains of the Soth Point windmill farm on the Big Island. From (http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMJKM_Kamaoa_Wind_Farms_South_Point_Hawaii).

[IB Publisher's note: The Kamaoa windmill farm was in installed at South Point of the Big Island in 1986 to produce 7.5 megawatts of electric power. By 2006 the the rusting dilapidated site was shut down. Centralized windmill farms will not be a reasonable solution for Hawaii. Distributed solar energy (for hot water and photo-voltaic electricity as well as demand destruction) is the way forward in Hawaii. I spoke to a table full of Aha Moku Council representatives from Lanai about the proposed windmills. They were all against the idea.]
 
The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) has just released an Environmental Impact Statement Preparation Notice (EISPN) for its long anticipated undersea electric transmission line connecting giant wind farms on Moloka`i and Lana`i to O`ahu.

According to DBEDT, there is no silver bullet in decreasing Hawaii's oil dependency -- a portfolio of renewable and energy efficiency is needed -- BUT this wind proposal must be part of the solution. Their approach can be summed up by expressions such as

"My Way or the Highway" * "There Is No Alternative (TINA)" * "I'm right and you're wrong"

Furthermore, although an EIS is mandated to look at alternatives, and although DBEDT has assured the public that the EIS will look at alternatives, in fact, the EIS will not examine any other alternative except the preferred solution. The preferred solution is to build 100-200 wind towers on Lana`i and Moloka`i. (each as tall as the First Hawaiian Bank in Honolulu)

Image above: A wind-turbine proposed on the State Capital Building in Honolulu. From original article.
 
This EIS is a self-serving document designed to keep Hawai`i hostage to distant power plants and massive new transmission lines instead of focusing on distributed generation which is the road to sustainability.

 
Video above: "It's Not Easy Being Green". From (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU9MHNL9AQk&NR)

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