Mesquites, mongooses, and innumerable other plants and animals share something with petroleum; they're all imported. Hawaii is famous as a living laboratory of biogeography. The archipelago is so remote that living things only rarely reached the islands on their own. Their descendants evolved into an array unique of species, like the Haleakala Silverswords and the Nēnēs. When people, beginning with the Polynesian ancestors of the original Hawaiians, first arrived they brought new plants and animals, often wreaking havoc on the native ecology of the islands. Europeans and Americans were fuzzy on what was useful. The links above describe the spread of Kiawe trees, which were useful to people, and mongooses, which weren't. The Polynesians who settled Hawaii, starting in 200-500 AD, had a pretty good idea what was useful.
Taro leaves being harvested at 'Iao Valley State Monument
The oil is very, very useful for getting to Hawaii quickly. The first people to reach Hawaii were the Polynesians, probably using voyaging canoes. Wind, currents, and human oarsmen would have moved the canoes. Although the Polynesian canoes were actually faster than the European sailing vessels, it took the Polynesian Voyaging Society a bit over a month to reach Tahiti from Hawaii.
These days, getting to Maui required a 5 and a half hour plane ride on a Boeing 757 from Los Angeles. Almost 7 million people visited Hawaii in 2010, almost all on airplanes. The tourism industry that dominates the modern Hawaiian economy is a recent phenomenon, the result of cheap, fast air travel. I suspect the vast majority of Hawaiians travel using airplanes between the islands and to the mainland. On Maui, we found paved roads with lots of vehicles just like elsewhere in the U.S., with a caveat or two. Gas was about $.90 more expensive than at home. Typically Hawaii has the nation's highest prices. We saw practically no Prii (plural of Prius). There were hordes of rental vehicles at some of the places we were, with an amazing number of Jeeps and Mustangs. Jet airplanes, Jeeps, and Mustangs all use petroleum-based fuels. A far cry from the King's Highway, one of the original Maui foot roads, built in the 16th century to circumnavigate the island--
The mill burns "bagasse", the fibrous cane waste after the sugar is squeezed and cooked out, to heat water into steam, which provides much of the power for the mill. That's steam from those stacks. The raising and harvesting of the cane on Maui is quite mechanized, so there's a lot of diesel fuel used there.
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| Cane crane |
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| A sugar cane claw |
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| Cane hauler |
It never gets hot or cold in Hawaii, unless you go to the top of the volcanos on Maui and the Big Island, where it can snow. We stayed at the Makena Resort, at the south end of Wailea. I had never been to Hawaii; I was a bit surprised to realize all hallways were open on one side. The lobby floor had only shutters to block the worst of the rain from a storm, no way to seal and heat or cool the area.
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| Makena Resort Lobby. Notice the shutters? |
This implies Hawaiian buildings don't use much energy compared to the parts of the U.S. that have summers and winters. Our rooms still had heating and cooling. There are lights, fans, and electric outlets. I wondered where the islands get their electricity. As we flew into Maui, I was struck by the line of enormous wind generators going up the side of the West Maui Mountains--
This wind farm can generate up to 51 megawatts of electricity, which is a fraction of what one coal-fired power plant produces. As I looked around an island that's the tip of a pair of huge undersea volcanos, I realized there wouldn't be any coal, oil, or natural gas to extract. Not surprisingly, 90% of Hawaii's electricity is generated by power plants that burn oil, not coal or natural gas. Oil was the most efficient, energy dense fuel to haul across a gigantic ocean, so the power companies built oil-burning plants. One small (180 Megawatts) power plant burns coal hauled in from Indonesia. In the U.S. as a whole only 3% of electricity comes from burning oil as shown below--
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| http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/index.html |
The Energy Information Agency has an interesting page on Hawaii, albeit based on 2010 data. They report Hawaii imports 94% of their energy. The Hawaiian state government has another interesting table of alternative energy projects. Because Hawaii has the highest electricity costs in the nation, solar power is actually cost-effective, although there are some challenges. Hawaii has the third lowest per capita energy use of any state. On the other hand, only Alaska uses more aviation fuel per capita. In case you're wondering why I haven't mentioned nuclear power, Hawaii Electric's renewables website explains that the Hawaiian State Constitution requires a 2/3 vote of the legislature for approval of nuclear plants. I also think a state that has tsunami warning sirens at regular intervals around the edge of the islands might not be the best location for a nuclear plant anyway. I heard a test; no one ran for the hills.
So Hawaii is a place where you don't need to burn a lot of hydrocarbons to stay comfortable. But the electricity they do need comes from ever more expensive imported oil. The tourism and remnant agricultural sector absolutely depend on petroleum to function. If, as some predict, airlines are one of the early causalities of expensive petroleum, Hawaii will become further away for most of us. It could also lead the nation in development of wind, solar, and geothermal energy generation capacity since it's so darn expensive to get hydrocarbons to the islands. But if tourism and export agriculture tank due to expensive oil, will capitalists invest in the Hawaiian energy economy? Will Hawaiians start eating the goats?
Aloha is used for both hello and goodbye. Seems to fit the petroleum age doesn't it?
West Maui in the distance, Kihei below
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