Future of Kauai?
by Ken & Jane Taylor
We recently
emailed Mayor Baptiste about the energy crisis that we all face
and he responded quite positively.
Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste
and Kauai County Council
April 5, 2005
The articles here
(and here)
raise some very important thoughts about the coming end of
the Oil Economy. As the articles state, life
as we know it today is going to change forever. Now is the
time to start talking and planning for what is coming.
It's time to revisit the twenty (20) year plan, for as it stands,
it is based on the continuation of guzzling cheap gas.
With your leadership the citizens of Kauai can be as prepared as
one can be for this most profound change in our lives.
Maybe the most profound change since the beginning of time.
Water will be one of the most important issues of the coming times,
and we must start planning for a complete gravity feed system.
If we don't work together to make our future, who is going to do
it for us ?
Thank you
Ken and Jane Taylor
Aloha, Mr. and
Mrs. Taylor.
Mahalo for taking the time to write. I share your concerns
about our dependence on oil. It is my vision that Kauai will
one day be energy self sufficient – with minimal or no use
of oil as a fuel on our island home.
This is an ambitious vision, and will need to be addressed in smaller
steps leading to the larger goal. The County is currently
drafting a “request for proposals” that would result
in the Lihue Civic Center being partially powered by a photovoltaic
system. Successful demonstration projects like these will
lead to greater use of these technologies.
We are also in the midst of a study that will tell us how useful
the methane that is being emitted from the Kekaha Landfill could
be as a renewable fuel source.
As the need for a new landfill site gets ever closer, I am committed
to converting our landfill-dependent solid waste disposal program
to one that puts at its center recycling, reuse, and a waste-to-energy
technology. Such a reliable renewable energy source will help
us move a long way toward our ultimate goal.
My administration is also actively supporting the establishment
of an ethanol plant on Gay and Robinson land, and the development
of a biomass conversion facility. Biomass is particularly
attractive as it not only provides for renewable energy, but could
also insure that a large portion of agricultural acreage remains
in ag use – growing biomass crops.
Hydro has always been a controversial topic on Kauai. I believe
with the release of a renewable energy study by KIUC (available
now on their website), and hydro being identified as having the
greatest potential for KIUC, that we will see more discussion on
this in the near future.
Mahalo for writing.
Sincerely,
Mayor Baptiste
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