West Hawaii Today: Letters to the Editor: September 6, 2020
This will be Hawaii’s future
We have been advocates for our fellow East Hawaii neighbors on many issues throughout our lifetime. We’re troubled by the PUC’s decision to terminate Honua Ola’s previously approved waiver, more importantly, how it affects our people. The PUC prefers solar over Honua Ola, which is ironic as California, a pioneer in greening their grid with large-scale solar and wind farms, struggles to meet the surge in demand for electricity without firm power along side it. If the PUC doesn’t reverse their decision, this will be Hawaii’s future.
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Amid an extreme heat wave and pandemic, California turned the lights off in households statewide. Cal-ISO searches for other renewables to meet the shortfall of solar and wind, which drops to zero when the sun doesn’t shine, and the wind doesn’t blow. Cal-ISO blames the PUC for the shortage and failing to ensure adequate power capacity on hot summer evenings while demand for air conditioning remains high. Without change, their situation will only worsen as California adds more solar panels and wind turbines to meet its 2045 goal of 100% emissions-free power.
Hawaii cannot depend on intermittent sources and needs to diversify the grid with firm renewable energy like Honua Ola, which will produce enough energy to power 14,000 homes 24/7. In denying Honua Ola, the PUC keeps Hawaii on fossil fuels, which is not fair to our residents.
Jerry Chang
Former State Representative District 2 – Hilo
Derek Kurisu
Executive Vice President KTA Super Stores
Generosity appreciated
I hope this finds you Saskatchewan Tim! Thank you so much for taking time out from your Geo-cache adventure with your family last month night to fix my flat tire. Thanks, too, to your wife and son for their kind support while you labored under my vehicle in the humid night air. (And with quite an audience.)
The world is a better place with people like you in it. You have my gratitude and I hope to be able to pay forward your generosity with the same free ease of giving.
Cherrie Ogin
Kailua-Kona
Please vote
President “Only I Can Fix It” Donald Trump has been the pilot (and navigator) for the last four years and is now standing in the wreckage of the plane, warning that Joe Biden should not be elected as he doesn’t know how to fly.
Having been asked on several occasions as to his plan for the next four years (other than fear and name-calling), Trump has come up with an outline of what he expects to achieve. As he recently told Peter Baker, New York Times reporter, “…so I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very, very, I think we’d have a very, very solid, we would continue what we’re doing, we’d solidify what we’ve done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done.”
Please, everyone. Be sure to vote in November.
Phyllis Hanson
Keauhou
Goats creating unsafe situation
The goat presence is rapidly increasing all along Waikoloa Road. Sadly, I saw a dead goat by the roadside the other day, which is what prompted this letter. There are countless near misses as well with drivers slamming on their brakes to avoid hitting an indecisive goat family deciding whether to cross the road.
While we have always had to be watchful on Waikoloa Road, these conditions are hazardous and will become more so when the tourists return. People and goats would all be safer if goats were moved to higher ground.
Linda Williamson
Waikoloa
West Hawaii Today, September 6, 2020: https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2020/09/06/opinion/letters-to-the-editor-september-6-2020/