Biomass Energy

The environmental and economic impact of imported oil hurts the U.S. now more than ever.  The impact of that pain is sharpest in the nation’s 50th state, Hawai'i.
Hawai'i’s location is more than 2,400 miles from the nearest continental landmass.   Hawai'i imports 88% of its energy supplies making the entire state’s populace vulnerable to supply interruptions and price volatility.
Economic impacts on production and transport rendered key elements of Hawai'i’s agricultural output unsustainable for export. As the sugar cane and pineapple industries collapsed, farming jobs have almost vanished on Oahu and the rest of the State.  The net result is rising unemployment at precisely the worst possible moment in recent economic history. Major agricultural land tracts laying fallow throughout the Hawaiian Islands.
Electricity production accounts for 32% of the petroleum used, ground and marine transportation for 27%, air transportation for 34%, and other industry for 7% (Biodiesel Crop Implementation in Hawai'i, Michael D. Poteet, Hawai'i Agriculture Research Center (September 2006).  Even at approximately $2.63 / gallon, Hawai'i’s gasoline is still the most expensive in the nation. Biofeedstocks grown locally for power produced locally reduces the amount of imported crude/oil needed. Eleven million gallons of oil spilled out of the Exxon Valdez in 1989 and still threatens fish and wildlife throughout the Prince William Sound 20 years later.  The average oil barge reaching Hawai'i carries 2 million barrels of oil at 42 gallons a barrel, or 84 million gallons.  By reducing the need for imported oil and the transportation of oil to the state, many environmental hazards are also reduced:
Oil spills and the danger posed to the marine environment. Reduced drilling implies reduced pollution associated with drilling. Reduced oil barge traffic means reduced contaminants from bilge water. Reduction of the carbon footprint created by each barge which must make the ocean crossing of thousands of miles.
Aina Koa Pono seeks to develop sustainable biofeedstocks that put fallow tracts back into production which in turn require rehiring some of the labor force that had worked those lands when they were previously planted.  AKP prefers to use land that is either currently out of production or has an existing biomass feedstock which is not used primarily for food.  Too many of the feedstock for biorefineries in the continental United States are using feedstock which could be used for food, raising the question of whether the use as a biorefinery feedstock is increasing the cost of food to the consumer.  By using land which is not currently used for food production, or on which the current biomass is not consumed as food, Hawai'i can be assured that their energy solution does not increase food costs to Hawaiians.