RAIL ROUTE

IWI WILL BE TREATED WITH GREAT RESPECT, SENSITIVITY

Your June 29 editorial, "City needs plan for burials, sites along rail route," pointed out that the city is taking steps to ensure any iwi or culturally significant artifacts found along the rail route will be addressed respectfully and appropriately.

Although the transit route will primarily utilize existing streets, and there is no disproportionate indication that any burial sites could be disturbed, there's always the possibility that iwi or sites of historic significance will be encountered during construction.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann is sensitive to this possibility, and takes such concerns seriously. Some readers may recall the furor nearly a decade ago as excavation work for a water main in Waikiki uncovered more than 50 iwi. As chairman of the City Council's Cultural Affairs Committee at that time, Mayor Hannemann was dissatisfied with the then-administration's handling of the iwi.

He brought the issue to the forefront before the City Council and the State Historic Preservation Division, sponsored legislation that pressed the administration to comply with state historic preservation laws and called for creation of a new commission on historic preservation.

At the mayor's direction, the city is taking the initiative to develop a memorandum of agreement with the State Historic Preservation Division establishing procedures and protocol so that any iwi discovered will be handled promptly and with respect.

In addition, the potential impact of the transit project on historic sites will be discussed in detail in the draft environmental impact statement.

As a keiki o ka 'aina, the mayor understands and appreciates the cultural and ancestral significance of this matter and will continue to ensure that any iwi discovered will be treated with sensitivity and respect.

ELECTRICITY

NUCLEAR POWER SHOULD BE ENERGY FUTURE FOR US

We are being faulted for not drilling for oil. The real fault is not building nuclear power plants so that we won't need to burn oil or coal for energy.

Using oil- and coal-fired plants to produce steam for the turbines driving the generators is a technique that is now old-fashioned.

In a program started by Adm. Hyman Rickover more years ago than many of you reading this are old, the Navy has had nuclear power plants on its submarines and surface ships with no problems, yet we don't allow them to come into our ports. Fear of nuclear power is engendered by the accident at Three Mile Island in the early days of nuclear power, and enforced by that clumsy accident at the plant in Chernobyl, which had insufficient design and safety standards. Compare the Navy's record!

I just read that the U.S. has only 104 nuclear power plants, yet those plants produce 20 percent of the nation's electricity. Many small countries have lots more plants than that. But Sen. John McCain envisions only a paltry 45 more by the year 2030. We are a backward nation.

Nuclear power is the way to go, as fast as we can build the plants. Building the very safe standardized units the Navy buys would speed things up.

INNOVATION

LOST OPPORTUNITIES TO FIND GOOD SOLUTIONS

With the price of oil zooming upwards of $140 a barrel, wouldn't it be great if we became energy self-sufficient? How different would our economic picture be if we had billions of our dollars circulating in our economy rather than exporting our money to unstable oil-producing nations?

OTEC (ocean thermal energy conversion) is baseload power, and as the climate continues to warm it becomes even more efficient. OTEC was developed in Hawai'i decades ago and could produce power 24/7. One local OTEC company is now building a system in Tierra Del Fuego. Why isn't this local innovation being employed at home?

And how about recidivism? The Department of Public Safety's corrections budget for 2007 was $126,678,392. The 2007 Legislature, working to reduce recidivism, enacted Act 8, which contains an innovative program called Restorative Circles that was conceived and designed in Hawai'i.

Although the Restorative Circles project is in statute as a re-entry strategy, the administration did not release the funding and the project is running out of grant money.

On July 1, Cambridge University in England released a report saying that "restorative justice," in which offenders confront their crime victims, reduces the frequency of reconviction by an average of 27 percent." The Restorative Circles project is now being implemented in Belgium.

What's all this talk about the innovation economy when Hawai'i doesn't even support our own innovators?

OIL

ANWR AND OFFSHORE DRILLING NOT THE ANSWER

The problem with drilling for new Alaskan and offshore oil is that there isn't enough of it.

Proven American reserves are about 21 billion barrels of oil, with 100 billion barrels possible but not yet discovered.

It takes about 25 years to extract oil from a field, so we might hope for 4 billion barrels of oil per year from new American fields at best, but more likely less than 1 billion barrels per year.

The world today uses more than 30 billion barrels of oil every year, with demand going up.

So drilling in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and currently forbidden offshore areas will only increase supply by a few percent (3 percent for sure, 15 percent if we are lucky) for a few years, starting at least 10 years from now.

I don't think increasing supply by a few percent will have a big impact on oil prices.

SUSTAINABLE SOURCES ONLY ENERGY ANSWER

I recently saw Rep. Neil Abercrombie on the Fox channel, advocating drilling offshore along the California and Florida coasts.

I was so appalled I quickly wrote him a letter.

His reply did not even try to justify the drilling. I suggested that the solution to the rising price of oil is to find sustainable alternative sources like biofuels and solar. Wind, geothermal and wave energy are also available in Hawai'i.

The last thing we and the world need is to have cheap gas pollute the environment and exacerbate the effects of global warming.

The oil industry will only maximize their profits from a dwindling resource. Like the U.S. auto industry, which continued to make large trucks and SUVs because of the higher profits, they have little incentive to develop alternative energy sources.

Funny, I have not seen this covered in any of the local media.

ETHANOL

DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH WAITING FOR ETHANOL

Lynda Arakawa's article correctly pointed out the ever-receding launch dates of Hawai'i-based ethanol plants because of financing and regulatory delays.

One major factor the article did not mention is the prodigious amounts of water that the ethanol production process requires. This is liable to be a deal-breaker, particularly on Maui, where the water supply is already stretched and Native Hawaiians are well along in their court battle to divert a huge percentage of the existing water supply through their taro fields and into the ocean.

And there is some real scientific concern that the upper atmosphere jet stream has shifted, causing recent drought conditions here and in the western U.S. If this shift to the north continues, the drought will continue, and all of the Hawaiian Islands will be facing desalinization of sea water for their water supply. Such expensive water is not conducive to ethanol production.

I am not holding my breath until commercially viable locally produced ethanol is available at my local gas station.

ISLE ETHANOL INDUSTRY POISED FOR ADVANCES

Although earlier would have been better, it is good to see ethanol production finally coming to Hawai'i. Because ethanol is now commonly associated with corn ethanol that yields only a little more energy than it takes to produce and competes with food crops, which has helped drive up food prices, it has recently gotten a bum rap. Ethanol from sugar cane, though, might well restore ethanol's earlier promise.

Just as important as production coming to Hawai'i are the facts that ethanol from sugar cane yields more than eight times more energy than it takes to produce, and better varieties are just around the corner.

A new genetically altered variety being tested provides about 80 percent more sucrose, while another can survive a month and a half without water.

Other plants, including switchgrass, miscanthus and sorghum, are also getting attention, but Hawai'i ethanol from sugar cane will likely be the first plant-based alternative to corn ethanol commercialized in the U.S.

With greater investment and research, the industry is poised for major advances, and it is exciting to see our state involved. The many Hawai'i individuals working on bringing it about deserve the appreciation of us all.