ENERGY

Neil Abercrombie has been a strong advocate for energy independence for Hawaii and for the United States. Here in Hawaii, he has championed and put federal funds into research on the use of local agricultural crops as biofuels and on ocean-thermal energy to generate electricity, and he’s helped fund research at UH into “flash carbonization” technology, a process that turns waste to energy in under an hour, 3 and could help to reduce local landfills, create jobs and produce clean energy from recycled waste.

He’s also worked on the national front advocating energy independence for the United States. Working with Democrats and Republicans, Abercrombie has produced two important pieces of legislation, including the American Independence and Clean Energy Act of 2009, to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign oil, create significant new source of revenue from the recovery of domestic fuels, and allocate the new revenue to create sustained funding that pays for the full development of alternative and renewable energy resources.

In April 2007, Abercrombie brought the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Rep. Collin Peterson (MN) out to the state for a personal tour and briefing on Hawaii’s agriculture-to-energy initiatives.

And, Abercrombie has been successful in winning Congressional funding for advanced energy research in several Defense projects that have important application for the military, Hawaii, and far beyond: a photovoltaic park at Pearl Harbor, an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion project off Oahu, which uses the different water temperatures at various depths to generate energy, a hydrogen fuel cell demonstration for outdoor lighting at Pearl Harbor, and a wave buoy off Kaneohe that actually converts the kinetic energy of ocean waves into electric power.

The military family residential communities, which have grown out of legislation Abercrombie helped write in 1996, are among the most energy efficient in the world. In fact, housing at Schofield Barracks is now considered the world’s largest residential solar housing community. These new Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps homes feature energy efficient technologies in everyday use, including solar water heating, photovoltaic systems, energy efficient appliances, paint, windows, and roofs.

Finally, he believes we must act on the federal level to comprehensively address climate change. Beginning with supporting improvements and efficiencies in the federal government and being a long-time proponent of increasing fuel efficiency standards for cars and other vehicles, Abercrombie understands these steps have laid a good foundation for reducing the amount of energy we use. Ultimately, he also voted in favor of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. H.R. 2454 would cap greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2012, and create a system of allowances to ensure this cap is being met. This measure sets the U.S. on a course to create millions of new clean energy jobs and transform our nation’s electric and transportation systems, as well as the way we use energy.