In life we face choices all the time. We hope they will be good ones, which movie to see, which restaurant, whom to date, or marry. Most of them are minor and a mistake won’t matter much. The movie was dull, food bland, date did not work out. No harm, better luck next time. On the other hand, a poor choice for marriage can have long-term consequences so we seldom do that impulsively.
Some decisions not only have potentially serious long-term consequences but are difficult because none of the options look good. Which candidate is least corrupt? Which used car that I can afford will be reliable?
If I have this baby how will I manage?
Some tough decisions are beyond personal. Is the Thirty Meter Telescope good for Hawaii? Should Congress consider impeachment? Will the new tax proposal give us what they promise?
Some are even more difficult because the options are not binary but multiple. Which of 16 colors to paint the house? What to name the new baby? What source of energy should we use on an island? Sometimes we have to choose the least bad.
There are multiple ways to generate electricity. There are also multiple fuels for transportation. The existing situation in terms of infrastructure limits some choices. Most of what we have, from mopeds to trucks to powerplants is already paid for, at least in part, and we don’t like to abandon it. The vehicle you have needs the fuel it was designed for. To change fuels usually means changing vehicles so unless you need a new one anyway it’s not a cost-effective change. You might be willing to undergo that expense for the environmental benefit, but remember creating a new vehicle and disposing of an old one has an environmental cost too. How much carbon is released to create 3000 pounds of new car, or a new 2000-pound car and its 500-pound battery? It may be more that the old car emits in another 100,000 miles. Still the new car decision is mostly personal and involves other issues.
How to provide electricity is a very complex decision. With multiple choices both personal, commercial, communal and governmental. As an individual we can choose between self-generation, or subscribing to a utility. Self-generation other than solar is not usually practical. Most of us connect to the grid for reliability even if we have solar. The big decisions therefore relate to how the grid is managed, as individuals we do not have much direct influence. The grid in most places, including Hawaii County it is a private i.e. investor owned but regulated utility. They have to follow a lot of rules, about not only what they do but how they profit. On the mainland the local utility is connected to a multi-state grid. If PGE needs extra gigawatts they can buy from another utility. If HELCO needs more they have to make it, right now. This means they have to have a little extra capacity available all the time.
Utilities need baseline power running all the time to meet most of our needs. Then peaking power to meet intermittent needs; usually provided by starting something idle that can be available on demand; typically, something fossil fueled. Fossil fuel plants are the least desirable from an environmental standpoint because they consume a limited resource, emit carbon and toxic pollutants. On an island fossil fuel has to be bought and transported many miles, oil or logs a truck’s, a truck. A biofuel plant, although it emits carbon, is in many ways carbon-neutral. The carbon being burned can be re-absorbed locally, sort of a closed loop. It would make no sense in the Sahara where bio-fuel would have to be hauled 2000 miles. On this island where thousands of tons of bio-waste rot on the ground. It makes sense to burn that into electricity instead of importing oil.
Ken Obesnki is a forensic engineer now freedom and safety advocate who lives in South Kona and writes a bimonthly column for West Hawaii Today. Send feedback to obesnkik@gmail.com