The governor wants all options on the table for lowering the state’s electricity costs while ridding itself of fossil fuels. Liquefied natural gas must be considered as Hawaii works to meet its clean energy goal of being completely renewable by 2045, Gov. Josh Green said this week at the Hawaii Energy Conference.
The state had been open to LNG under the Abercrombie administration, and Hawaiian Electric Co. was even pursuing its development, but the Ige administration flatly opposed it so the utility scrapped its plans. Speaking Wednesday at the conference on Maui, Green said LNG must be part of the mix as the state considers ways to lower energy costs, build energy resilience and lower its carbon footprint.
He has asked his chief energy officer to conduct a full-scale analysis of every possible energy source, except nuclear, that can accelerate Hawaii’s transition away from fossil fuel dependence. “Can I be blunt? One of those ways is liquefied natural gas and that gives a lot of people hives. I get it.
I do. But if the goal is to use less carbon and get there sooner so that we are actually renewable, we have to have everything on the table,” Green said. If Hawaii fails to meet its renewable energy mandate, the state will continue to burn fossil fuels at “an alarming rate,” Green said, adding that consumers will continue to pay some of the highest energy costs in the nation and more local families will move to the mainland.
“There has to be some form of bridge b.