I’ve been involved in countless conversations about the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe but one in particular raised some important questions.  Someone asked me what the consequences would be if there was an oil spill in Hawaii?  The answer eluded me and only induced more questions – where and how could it happen?  Are we prepared?  And most importantly – could the effect be as damaging to Hawaii as it has been to the areas surrounding the Gulf?  I needed answers so I started digging.

This may come as a shock but Hawaii is no stranger to oil spills.  The 11th largest spill in the world took place 350 miles off the coast of Honolulu in 1977 when the Hawaiian Patriot lost a plate from its hull, exploded and sank.  More recent spills include the Exxon Houston debacle in 1989 and an accident in 2006 when 2,000 gallons spilled at Barber’s Point.

Despite the fact that we have no drilling platforms, we are still at risk for spills.  Hopefully we’ll never see another spill like the Hawaiian Patriot but our high demand for energy will continue to bring oil filled vessels into our harbors.  This not only puts our environment at risk, but additional spills could be devastating to our economy.  Hawaii gets approximately 90% of its energy from imported oil and petroleum products.  And according to the Hawaii Energy Biomas Master Plan Final Report – “While Hawaii’s economy is not necessarily energy intensive, its average per capita oil consumption is over 40 barrels per year compared to 24 for the U.S. mainland.  The per capita comparison between Hawaii and major growing world economies of China and India shows an even bigger discrepancy, since China’s per capita oil consumption is about 2.2 and India’s is close to 1.0.”

Fortunately The Clean Islands Council is on-call and prepared 24/7 365 with skilled personnel and cutting edge equipment.  It’s reassuring knowing that we have a disaster recovery team in place but wouldn’t we better off preventing spills instead of reacting to them?  Wouldn’t it be a safer and more sustainable approach to move to an energy supply model that incorporates multiple sources?  It appears that’s the direction we’re headed.  In 2008, the State of Hawaii started setting aggressive goals to reduce our dependency on imported oil.

This is great news for our community and I was particularly excited to read about the wind farm in Kahuku.  With a multi-source system in place we will be able to reduce our demand for imported oil.  And with less demand, there will be less oil filled vessels transferring their toxic contents to our refineries.  Only then will we be able to reduce future oil spills and keep our oceans clean and wildlife safe.

What else do you think will help decrease Hawaii’s dependence on foreign oil?  Please fill out our poll to the left of this Blog.  If you have other ideas, please feel free to post them in the comments section below.

Want more information or have questions about what we’re doing at HONBLUE? Drop me a line at shines@honbue.com or 441-4452.