East-West Center in the News

(2013-01-17) “For the past 50 years, we have been locked into an energy structure, [and] now it is rapidly changing,” Fesharaki said.

He says that there are two factors contributing to this rapidly changing environment, including the upcoming changes at both refineries and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules starting in 2015 that will make it impossible to use fuel oil in power generation.

“Any fuel that leaves ash when burning will need to be eliminated,” Fesharaki said.

He says that only two options remain for the state, including diesel fuel and liquefied natural gas.

“There are no other options,” Fesharaki said. “With diesel, there’s no ash but can you buy it? [The state would] have to bring it in with three points of entry: Chevron, Tesoro or Aloha Petroleum.”

... In terms of LNG, which Fesharaki estimates could cost six times less than the cost of oil, building infrastructure also is a huge challenge.

“Can’t do it for less than $500 million,” he said.

A key decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Hawaii Gas’ plan to begin shipping small amounts of LNG to Hawaii as a backup fuel source is expected to come out on Thursday, according to Fesharaki.

“We can’t wait for renewables,” he said. “The pace and direction of the [Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative] is okay but the timing is difficult to reach.”