I haven't had much time to blog. I plan on getting up a lot of information about KIUC, Lingle's recent comments, and renewable energy on Kauai, but the following story got my attention for now:
Here is a good newspaper article on this project:
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/02/24/business/bus01.txt
http://www.grovefarm.com/newsletters/March2008.pdf
"Farmers Wanted"
"Grove Farm has been a leader in Kaua‘i’s agricultural legacy since the late 1800’s and are excited to embark on a new phase of ongoing diversified agriculture operations.
Grove Farm has plans to create an integrated agricultural park within Maha‘ulepu Valley.
Approximately 300 acres has been earmarked to grow kalo, an amount that will nearly double the entire state of Hawai‘i’s current production of the important cultural and nutritional crop.
While studies are underway to determine the types of crops that will prove most viable for the area, after initial review, it looks promising to utilize an additional 700-800 acres for crops that range from organic produce to fruit orchards.
Farmers interested in learning more about the various opportunities related to the project are invited to call our Grove Farm office at 245-3678."
Aloha, Brad
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Air New Zealand to use HI weeds as jet fuel?
From www.islandbreath.org:
POSTED: 12 JUNE 2008- 1:15pm EST
"Jatropha plant's oil studied as jet fuel"
by Peter Pae 5 June 2008 in The Los Angeles Times
"The easily grown weed's product could be a third of the cost of crude and doesn't have the environmental drawbacks of ethanol. Air New Zealand plans test flights in the fall.
If all goes well this summer, an Air New Zealand 747 jumbo jet will take off from Auckland this fall powered by fuel refined from the seed of a fast-growing weed.
The three-hour test flight could mark one of the more promising -- and more unusual -- steps by the financially strapped airline industry to find cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuel.
"We're confident that the test will go well," said David Morgan, Air New Zealand's general manager for airline operations, before leading visitors to a farm here where the weeds are being researched. If the flight is successful, "it'll be a real milestone not only for Air New Zealand but for aviation."
The secret: oil from poisonous seeds of the jatropha tree, which grows in warm climates around the world. For the last year, scientists here have been perfecting a process for turning the oil into jet fuel. On Wednesday, the airline announced plans to use the new fuel for 10% of its needs by 2013.
The jatropha oil is also significantly cheaper than crude oil. It could cost an estimated $43 a barrel, or about one-third of Wednesday's closing price of $122.30 for a barrel of crude oil.
The test flight is particularly noteworthy because it will come at a time when ethanol and other biofuels have come under increasing scrutiny because of their side effects. Production of ethanol has been blamed for corn shortages that have contributed to higher food prices. Other biofuels have been blamed for deforestation and contributing to global warming.
The test will also come as record fuel prices are prompting airlines to raise fares and jam more people into fewer, more fuel-efficient planes. With jet fuel prices up 70% from a year ago, U.S. carriers could see losses of more than $7 billion this year, analysts estimate.
On Wednesday, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, the nation's second-largest carrier, said it planned to ground 100 older, fuel-guzzling planes and shed as many as 1,600 jobs as it faces a $3-billion fuel bill in what it called an "unprecedented fuel environment."
"This is an extraordinary crisis with the potential to reshape the industry with impacts throughout the global economy," said Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of the International Air Transport Assn., as he opened an annual gathering of airline executives in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday.
A partial solution may lie here on a hillside with a vista of Honolulu, where Air New Zealand and aircraft maker Boeing Co. have been working with Hawaiian agriculture experts to develop a strain of weed that could help the industry reduce its dependence on crude oil.
The weed, which resembles a fruit tree, can be grown virtually anywhere, doesn't need much water or fertilizer and is not edible. In India, the plants are mainly used as hedges to keep cows out of farm fields. In the U.S. some researchers, including one in Santa Barbara, have been growing the trees to process biodiesel that can be used in automobiles and factory machines."
It's an ugly-looking plant, to be honest with you," said Lance Santo, an agronomist for Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, as he held a golf-ball-size nut that had fallen from a jatropha plant.
Within the nut were two seeds resembling peanuts. They contained 30% to 40% oil. Researchers looking at various crops discovered that the quality of jatropha oil was better than most for making jet fuel. Jatropha-based fuel also produces about half the harmful carbon emissions of fossil fuel.
Air New Zealand said its jatropha oil for the test flight would come from fields in southeastern Africa and India. The oil will be refined into jet fuel at an unspecified "hydro plant" in the U.S. that the carrier declined to name, citing competitive reasons.
For safety, the initial test flight will involve running only one of the four engines with the fuel. If the test is successful, the fuel will gradually be used on all of the engines in subsequent test flights.
Researchers here have found that an acre of the plant can yield about 300 gallons of oil, or five to seven times more than other potential feedstocks such as soybeans.
Though little is known in the U.S., jatropha is widely viewed as a potential wonder plant in many parts of the world where longtime fuel shortages have led to development of alternative energy sources to power automobiles and factories.
But the latest effort by Air New Zealand, which is also getting help from jet-engine maker Rolls-Royce, is the first to process the oil for jet fuel and comes after nearly two years of research into a second generation of biofuels.
After it gets its first supply of jatropha-based jet fuel in July, the airline will have to wait a few months for regulatory approvals and fuel certifications to begin the test flights, which, if all goes well, could occur in September.
At the agricultural field office here, jatropha is also seen as holding promise for agriculture in Hawaii, once the world's largest sugar-cane producer. With lower-cost foreign competition, Hawaii has only two cane growers now, down from a dozen when Santo began working for the state's agriculture department in 1972.
Agriculture experts are not sure whether jatropha can replace sugar cane as a major crop, but researchers are also looking at other uses, including plant extracts that they recently discovered had properties similar to those of latex.
"It'll be a while before we can say it's a miracle plant," Santo said. 'But we've just scratched the surface.'"
Aloha, Brad
POSTED: 12 JUNE 2008- 1:15pm EST
"Jatropha plant's oil studied as jet fuel"
by Peter Pae 5 June 2008 in The Los Angeles Times
"The easily grown weed's product could be a third of the cost of crude and doesn't have the environmental drawbacks of ethanol. Air New Zealand plans test flights in the fall.
If all goes well this summer, an Air New Zealand 747 jumbo jet will take off from Auckland this fall powered by fuel refined from the seed of a fast-growing weed.
The three-hour test flight could mark one of the more promising -- and more unusual -- steps by the financially strapped airline industry to find cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuel.
"We're confident that the test will go well," said David Morgan, Air New Zealand's general manager for airline operations, before leading visitors to a farm here where the weeds are being researched. If the flight is successful, "it'll be a real milestone not only for Air New Zealand but for aviation."
The secret: oil from poisonous seeds of the jatropha tree, which grows in warm climates around the world. For the last year, scientists here have been perfecting a process for turning the oil into jet fuel. On Wednesday, the airline announced plans to use the new fuel for 10% of its needs by 2013.
The jatropha oil is also significantly cheaper than crude oil. It could cost an estimated $43 a barrel, or about one-third of Wednesday's closing price of $122.30 for a barrel of crude oil.
The test flight is particularly noteworthy because it will come at a time when ethanol and other biofuels have come under increasing scrutiny because of their side effects. Production of ethanol has been blamed for corn shortages that have contributed to higher food prices. Other biofuels have been blamed for deforestation and contributing to global warming.
The test will also come as record fuel prices are prompting airlines to raise fares and jam more people into fewer, more fuel-efficient planes. With jet fuel prices up 70% from a year ago, U.S. carriers could see losses of more than $7 billion this year, analysts estimate.
On Wednesday, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, the nation's second-largest carrier, said it planned to ground 100 older, fuel-guzzling planes and shed as many as 1,600 jobs as it faces a $3-billion fuel bill in what it called an "unprecedented fuel environment."
"This is an extraordinary crisis with the potential to reshape the industry with impacts throughout the global economy," said Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of the International Air Transport Assn., as he opened an annual gathering of airline executives in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday.
A partial solution may lie here on a hillside with a vista of Honolulu, where Air New Zealand and aircraft maker Boeing Co. have been working with Hawaiian agriculture experts to develop a strain of weed that could help the industry reduce its dependence on crude oil.
The weed, which resembles a fruit tree, can be grown virtually anywhere, doesn't need much water or fertilizer and is not edible. In India, the plants are mainly used as hedges to keep cows out of farm fields. In the U.S. some researchers, including one in Santa Barbara, have been growing the trees to process biodiesel that can be used in automobiles and factory machines."
It's an ugly-looking plant, to be honest with you," said Lance Santo, an agronomist for Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, as he held a golf-ball-size nut that had fallen from a jatropha plant.
Within the nut were two seeds resembling peanuts. They contained 30% to 40% oil. Researchers looking at various crops discovered that the quality of jatropha oil was better than most for making jet fuel. Jatropha-based fuel also produces about half the harmful carbon emissions of fossil fuel.
Air New Zealand said its jatropha oil for the test flight would come from fields in southeastern Africa and India. The oil will be refined into jet fuel at an unspecified "hydro plant" in the U.S. that the carrier declined to name, citing competitive reasons.
For safety, the initial test flight will involve running only one of the four engines with the fuel. If the test is successful, the fuel will gradually be used on all of the engines in subsequent test flights.
Researchers here have found that an acre of the plant can yield about 300 gallons of oil, or five to seven times more than other potential feedstocks such as soybeans.
Though little is known in the U.S., jatropha is widely viewed as a potential wonder plant in many parts of the world where longtime fuel shortages have led to development of alternative energy sources to power automobiles and factories.
But the latest effort by Air New Zealand, which is also getting help from jet-engine maker Rolls-Royce, is the first to process the oil for jet fuel and comes after nearly two years of research into a second generation of biofuels.
After it gets its first supply of jatropha-based jet fuel in July, the airline will have to wait a few months for regulatory approvals and fuel certifications to begin the test flights, which, if all goes well, could occur in September.
At the agricultural field office here, jatropha is also seen as holding promise for agriculture in Hawaii, once the world's largest sugar-cane producer. With lower-cost foreign competition, Hawaii has only two cane growers now, down from a dozen when Santo began working for the state's agriculture department in 1972.
Agriculture experts are not sure whether jatropha can replace sugar cane as a major crop, but researchers are also looking at other uses, including plant extracts that they recently discovered had properties similar to those of latex.
"It'll be a while before we can say it's a miracle plant," Santo said. 'But we've just scratched the surface.'"
Aloha, Brad
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Kauai Letter to the Editor...from Iraq 6/5/08
Recent video report: http://www.khon2.com/home/ticker/19753144.html
I post this here because it shows that even in Iraq somebody is watching and responding in a timely manner to the example of a relatively small event taking place on the other side of the planet on Kauai:
TGI Letter to the Editor 6/5/08: "Desecrating Graves"
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/06/05/opinion/edit01.txt
"Desecrating Graves"
I could imagine if I were home I would have been one of the protesters at Joseph Brescias’ property (“Home approved, bones remain,” A1, June 4).
I do not believe any civil person would desecrate another’s grave in such an openly hostile way. I know property in Ha‘ena is pricey, but how, with any moral integrity, one can build on 30 ancestors graves, who to this day have relatives watching in utter horror, is beyond the pale.
The next time they say Hawaiians are treated equally to whites, ask yourself, when was the last time you heard of a graveyard being uprooted for someone wealthy to build another house. Seems to be the natives’ rights are nonexistent. As for Darryl Perry and Lady Ipo, shame on you for not standing up for what is pono.
David Denson of Hanalei
Tajii, Iraq
I post this here because it shows that even in Iraq somebody is watching and responding in a timely manner to the example of a relatively small event taking place on the other side of the planet on Kauai:
TGI Letter to the Editor 6/5/08: "Desecrating Graves"
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/06/05/opinion/edit01.txt
"Desecrating Graves"
I could imagine if I were home I would have been one of the protesters at Joseph Brescias’ property (“Home approved, bones remain,” A1, June 4).
I do not believe any civil person would desecrate another’s grave in such an openly hostile way. I know property in Ha‘ena is pricey, but how, with any moral integrity, one can build on 30 ancestors graves, who to this day have relatives watching in utter horror, is beyond the pale.
The next time they say Hawaiians are treated equally to whites, ask yourself, when was the last time you heard of a graveyard being uprooted for someone wealthy to build another house. Seems to be the natives’ rights are nonexistent. As for Darryl Perry and Lady Ipo, shame on you for not standing up for what is pono.
David Denson of Hanalei
Tajii, Iraq
"You Think Flying Is Bad Now..."
I missed this at first, but this is an excellent article. Most of you know the Hawaii economy almost totally depends upon the DoD, the airlines, and hotels. The hotels depend on the airlines, so it's really just the DoD and airlines. The airlines are about to dramatically change and the Hawaii economy along with them.
From: http://www.businessweek.com/
"You Think Flying Is Bad Now..." May 28, 2008
Something has to give as airlines adjust to $130 oil and brace for a record yearly loss. Not all of the majors will survive
by Dean Foust and Justin Bachman
"To fully appreciate the impact that soaring oil prices have had on the nation's beleaguered airline industry, consider that U.S. carriers will likely spend $60 billion on jet fuel this year—nearly four times what they paid in 2000. Because of the spike in fuel costs, airlines now lose roughly $60 on every round-trip passenger, a slow bleed that puts the industry on pace to lose $7.2 billion this year, the largest yearly loss ever.
Not surprisingly, Wall Street has become so dour about the industry's prospects—can you say federal bailout?—that the combined market capitalization for the six major legacy carriers and Southwest Airlines has fallen to just over $17 billion. That's about what ExxonMobil (XOM) books in revenues every two weeks. "The U.S. airline industry, as it is constituted today, was not built for $125-per-barrel oil," Gerard Arpey, the chief executive of American Airlines parent AMR (AMR), told shareholders on May 21.
Consolidation Is Likely
While the industry is no stranger to losing money—or reorganizing under bankruptcy, for that matter—experts nonetheless believe that the current crisis has the potential to profoundly reshape the industry in coming years. That means not only far fewer carriers than at present, but forcing the survivors to rethink every facet of how they operate, from ticket pricing to the very way they fly. "The problem right now is that no one knows where the price of oil is going to fall down," says Darryl Jenkins, an aviation expert at Ohio State University. "Right now you're just in kind of the worst of all possible situations. Your planning becomes 'What do we do to lose the least amount of money?'"
If oil prices remain in the triple digits—above the $80-to-$90 break-even level for most airlines—it will accelerate the shakeout that is already occurring in the industry. While many carriers have in the past exploited bankruptcy as a competitive maneuver to cut costs, experts believe that any carrier that falls into Chapter 11 going forward will likely have to liquidate. That would probably include one or more of the major airlines. "I think the real risk this time is not Chapter 11, but [Chapter] 7—liquidation," says a senior executive of one major airline. "What happened to Pan Am? TWA? Eastern? I think there's a real risk here that some airlines just go away."
A court-overseen bankruptcy also could help smooth the industry's transformation if creditors decide the environment is too hostile and agree to sell off valuable assets. Historically, airlines have attracted sufficient funding to operate while restructuring, and new capital when they exit. It's not clear that current market conditions—high oil prices and credit-squeezed lenders—would support that playbook. Airlines with the financial muscle to step in—think Southwest (LUV)—would be interested. Southwest historically has avoided major acquisitions and considers them a steep risk but clearly recognizes potential opportunity in a bankrupt rival. "It just gives the acquiring carrier a tremendous amount of flexibility to impose change that would otherwise be very difficult," says Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, whose company has remained profitable because of long-term fuel contracts.
European Buyers
Analysts say liquidations could well leave an industry consisting of two dominant carriers, most likely the combined Delta (DAL)-Northwest (NWA) and perhaps a combined American (AMR)-Continental (CAL), along with a couple of discount players like Southwest. "I think the industry is going to look more like Europe—a couple of far-flung carriers and then a bunch of little guys," says Roger King, airline analyst for CreditSights, a New York-based institutional research firm.
Experts also believe that the oil crisis will eventually prompt Washington policymakers to drop their long-standing resistance to foreign ownership of U.S. carriers, leading to the first generation of truly global carriers. "The U.S. airlines badly need more capital to survive, and the only players with the resources to buy in are the [cash-rich] European carriers. Why would Congress object to that?" asks Robert Mann, an industry consultant in Port Washington, N.Y.
That could give British Airways (BAY.L) the opening for the acquisition of American it has long coveted, and a similar move by Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) on either United Airlines (UAUA) or JetBlue Airways (JBLU), in which it already owns a 19% stake. For all its aviation woes, the U.S. remains the largest, most lucrative travel market in the world. "Don't you think BA would fall over itself to buy American Airlines for $1.6 billion?" King says. "That's peanuts to them."
Creative Pricing
This consolidation will come with a cost: Experts believe that for the U.S. industry to shrink to a size that would allow the surviving carriers to earn a profit will require hefty fare hikes and a 20%-to-25% cut in capacity. That means fewer routes, fewer flights, and even more crowded planes. The biggest losers would be smaller cities like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Baton Rouge, La., that became accustomed to dozens of daily flights, usually on 50-seat jets that the majors use to feed traffic to their hubs. But oil priced near $130 has rendered those smaller jets uneconomical, meaning that carriers are likely to fly one much larger plane on marginal routes each day, but no more. "We might keep one flight just to keep Congress off our back," muses one industry executive.
Coast-to-coast flights will change, too. With roughly 30% of the weight of any transcontinental flight consisting of the fuel alone, meaning airlines are burning fuel just to carry fuel, carriers can be expected to replace many of those longer nonstops with one-stop flights, intended largely for refueling.
The era of cheap fares will end, too. Since deregulation in 1978, fares have fallen by more than 50% in real, inflation-adjusted terms. Prices will rise, and airlines will become even more creative in how they set fares. Some experts like Mann wonder if carriers won't begin charging passengers by weight, as air-freight companies do to transport goods. "There's a huge cost difference between flying a grown man and a 50-pound child," Mann notes. Industry executives say they can't see that happening any time soon—"too politically incorrect," as one notes. Adds Southwest's Kelly: "I just don't think it makes a lot of sense."
But the airlines will take other steps to wring more cash out of passengers, as American did last week in announcing plans to charge $15 to check a bag starting June 15. It will mean selling even more classes of service, and charging a premium for window, aisle, and exit-row seats as well as those at the front of the plane. Airlines will also create more levels of service off the plane as well, starting with a separate class of check-in, boarding, and baggage-claim service for travelers willing to pay more for the privilege of zipping in and out of airports quicker.
Technical Upgrades
The fee changes and higher fares are likely to cull millions of poor and middle-class travelers from the ranks of regular fliers, ending an era of $99 cross-country fares and bargain-basement weekend flights. It is also likely that Americans will see a far larger array of new travel products being sold at airline Web sites, such as aggressive hotel packages and travel insurance.
But even airline executives admit that this is all chump change compared with what they could save if they could lower the costs of operating their current fleets of fuel-guzzling jets. In a different environment, that would mean eventually phasing out the traditional cigar-shaped planes the industry flies with a more efficient mode of transport. Engineers working on Boeing's (BA) X-48 Blended Wing Project designed a jet that uses nearly 25% less fuel—think of a Stealth Bomber-shaped plane that resembles one giant wing—but the design limitations (no easy exit, nor windows for passengers to look out) mean that the planes are likely destined for military use.
Airline executives think they can wring out comparable savings by prodding Congress to fund the long-stalled modernization of the FAA's air traffic control system, which still relies on 1950s-era radar to route planes. Replacing it with a GPS-based system would cost the government and industry a collective $47 billion to implement, but executives say it could save the industry billions in fuel costs each year. If pilots could fly point-to-point, that could cut the circuitous, 585-mile path they currently must follow between Boston and Washington D.C. by as much as one-third, for instance.
A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
But developing a GPS-based system could take a decade or more, and in the meantime airline executives are exploring ways to reduce their reliance on jet fuel, a kerosene-based oil that currently costs roughly $4.09 a gallon, up 98% in the past year. But developing an alternative hasn't been easy: Jet fuels have to pack enough oomph to power jet engines and at the same time be dense enough not to freeze in the air at -40C—a temperature that turns most biofuels into solids. But progress is coming. The Pentagon, which buys more aviation kerosene than any other group, has successfully tested a jet fuel made from liquefied coal. Airbus, meanwhile, is leading a consortium on a project to replace a third of jet fuel with advanced biofuels extracted from algae and plant oils. The efforts will help lower fuel costs and reduce dependence on crude oil.
This past February, Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson christened the first-ever commercial flight powered by biofuels. In its test flight, Virgin flew a Boeing 747 running on a blend of oils from coconut and Brazilian babassu trees, produced by Seattle-based Imperium Renewables. "Two years ago, we thought this was pie in the sky," says Billy Glover, managing director of environmental strategy for Boeing's commercial division. "But things have evolved very rapidly. Our guess is that in five years we could have commercial biojet fuels on the market."
Projected cost: Around $2 per gallon, or a third less than current prices for aviation kerosene. Coupled with higher fares, biofuels would be cheap enough for airlines to turn a profit. These days, that'd be enough to make many an airline executive go out and collect the coconuts."
With Adam Aston in New York
Also, a couple of reports from KGMB9 this evening about United (bad) and Hawaiian (good):
United Airlines Cuts Staff, Planes Grounded Written by KGMB9 News June 04, 2008, "Sky-high fuel prices are taking their toll on United Airlines. The company announced Wednesday it is laying off more than 1,400 employees and reducing its domestic routes by about 18 percent through next year."
Hawaiian Airlines Adds More 717s to It's Fleet Written by KGMB9 News June 04, 2008, "Hawaiian Airlines has announced that it will expand its interisland fleet with the addition of four Boeing 717-200 aircraft to better meet the needs of Hawaii's interisland travelers in the wake of the shutdown of Aloha Airlines on April 1. Two of the aircraft are expected to enter service in September, while the remaining two will join the fleet in November and December, respectively."
Aloha, Brad
From: http://www.businessweek.com/
"You Think Flying Is Bad Now..." May 28, 2008
Something has to give as airlines adjust to $130 oil and brace for a record yearly loss. Not all of the majors will survive
by Dean Foust and Justin Bachman
"To fully appreciate the impact that soaring oil prices have had on the nation's beleaguered airline industry, consider that U.S. carriers will likely spend $60 billion on jet fuel this year—nearly four times what they paid in 2000. Because of the spike in fuel costs, airlines now lose roughly $60 on every round-trip passenger, a slow bleed that puts the industry on pace to lose $7.2 billion this year, the largest yearly loss ever.
Not surprisingly, Wall Street has become so dour about the industry's prospects—can you say federal bailout?—that the combined market capitalization for the six major legacy carriers and Southwest Airlines has fallen to just over $17 billion. That's about what ExxonMobil (XOM) books in revenues every two weeks. "The U.S. airline industry, as it is constituted today, was not built for $125-per-barrel oil," Gerard Arpey, the chief executive of American Airlines parent AMR (AMR), told shareholders on May 21.
Consolidation Is Likely
While the industry is no stranger to losing money—or reorganizing under bankruptcy, for that matter—experts nonetheless believe that the current crisis has the potential to profoundly reshape the industry in coming years. That means not only far fewer carriers than at present, but forcing the survivors to rethink every facet of how they operate, from ticket pricing to the very way they fly. "The problem right now is that no one knows where the price of oil is going to fall down," says Darryl Jenkins, an aviation expert at Ohio State University. "Right now you're just in kind of the worst of all possible situations. Your planning becomes 'What do we do to lose the least amount of money?'"
If oil prices remain in the triple digits—above the $80-to-$90 break-even level for most airlines—it will accelerate the shakeout that is already occurring in the industry. While many carriers have in the past exploited bankruptcy as a competitive maneuver to cut costs, experts believe that any carrier that falls into Chapter 11 going forward will likely have to liquidate. That would probably include one or more of the major airlines. "I think the real risk this time is not Chapter 11, but [Chapter] 7—liquidation," says a senior executive of one major airline. "What happened to Pan Am? TWA? Eastern? I think there's a real risk here that some airlines just go away."
A court-overseen bankruptcy also could help smooth the industry's transformation if creditors decide the environment is too hostile and agree to sell off valuable assets. Historically, airlines have attracted sufficient funding to operate while restructuring, and new capital when they exit. It's not clear that current market conditions—high oil prices and credit-squeezed lenders—would support that playbook. Airlines with the financial muscle to step in—think Southwest (LUV)—would be interested. Southwest historically has avoided major acquisitions and considers them a steep risk but clearly recognizes potential opportunity in a bankrupt rival. "It just gives the acquiring carrier a tremendous amount of flexibility to impose change that would otherwise be very difficult," says Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, whose company has remained profitable because of long-term fuel contracts.
European Buyers
Analysts say liquidations could well leave an industry consisting of two dominant carriers, most likely the combined Delta (DAL)-Northwest (NWA) and perhaps a combined American (AMR)-Continental (CAL), along with a couple of discount players like Southwest. "I think the industry is going to look more like Europe—a couple of far-flung carriers and then a bunch of little guys," says Roger King, airline analyst for CreditSights, a New York-based institutional research firm.
Experts also believe that the oil crisis will eventually prompt Washington policymakers to drop their long-standing resistance to foreign ownership of U.S. carriers, leading to the first generation of truly global carriers. "The U.S. airlines badly need more capital to survive, and the only players with the resources to buy in are the [cash-rich] European carriers. Why would Congress object to that?" asks Robert Mann, an industry consultant in Port Washington, N.Y.
That could give British Airways (BAY.L) the opening for the acquisition of American it has long coveted, and a similar move by Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) on either United Airlines (UAUA) or JetBlue Airways (JBLU), in which it already owns a 19% stake. For all its aviation woes, the U.S. remains the largest, most lucrative travel market in the world. "Don't you think BA would fall over itself to buy American Airlines for $1.6 billion?" King says. "That's peanuts to them."
Creative Pricing
This consolidation will come with a cost: Experts believe that for the U.S. industry to shrink to a size that would allow the surviving carriers to earn a profit will require hefty fare hikes and a 20%-to-25% cut in capacity. That means fewer routes, fewer flights, and even more crowded planes. The biggest losers would be smaller cities like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Baton Rouge, La., that became accustomed to dozens of daily flights, usually on 50-seat jets that the majors use to feed traffic to their hubs. But oil priced near $130 has rendered those smaller jets uneconomical, meaning that carriers are likely to fly one much larger plane on marginal routes each day, but no more. "We might keep one flight just to keep Congress off our back," muses one industry executive.
Coast-to-coast flights will change, too. With roughly 30% of the weight of any transcontinental flight consisting of the fuel alone, meaning airlines are burning fuel just to carry fuel, carriers can be expected to replace many of those longer nonstops with one-stop flights, intended largely for refueling.
The era of cheap fares will end, too. Since deregulation in 1978, fares have fallen by more than 50% in real, inflation-adjusted terms. Prices will rise, and airlines will become even more creative in how they set fares. Some experts like Mann wonder if carriers won't begin charging passengers by weight, as air-freight companies do to transport goods. "There's a huge cost difference between flying a grown man and a 50-pound child," Mann notes. Industry executives say they can't see that happening any time soon—"too politically incorrect," as one notes. Adds Southwest's Kelly: "I just don't think it makes a lot of sense."
But the airlines will take other steps to wring more cash out of passengers, as American did last week in announcing plans to charge $15 to check a bag starting June 15. It will mean selling even more classes of service, and charging a premium for window, aisle, and exit-row seats as well as those at the front of the plane. Airlines will also create more levels of service off the plane as well, starting with a separate class of check-in, boarding, and baggage-claim service for travelers willing to pay more for the privilege of zipping in and out of airports quicker.
Technical Upgrades
The fee changes and higher fares are likely to cull millions of poor and middle-class travelers from the ranks of regular fliers, ending an era of $99 cross-country fares and bargain-basement weekend flights. It is also likely that Americans will see a far larger array of new travel products being sold at airline Web sites, such as aggressive hotel packages and travel insurance.
But even airline executives admit that this is all chump change compared with what they could save if they could lower the costs of operating their current fleets of fuel-guzzling jets. In a different environment, that would mean eventually phasing out the traditional cigar-shaped planes the industry flies with a more efficient mode of transport. Engineers working on Boeing's (BA) X-48 Blended Wing Project designed a jet that uses nearly 25% less fuel—think of a Stealth Bomber-shaped plane that resembles one giant wing—but the design limitations (no easy exit, nor windows for passengers to look out) mean that the planes are likely destined for military use.
Airline executives think they can wring out comparable savings by prodding Congress to fund the long-stalled modernization of the FAA's air traffic control system, which still relies on 1950s-era radar to route planes. Replacing it with a GPS-based system would cost the government and industry a collective $47 billion to implement, but executives say it could save the industry billions in fuel costs each year. If pilots could fly point-to-point, that could cut the circuitous, 585-mile path they currently must follow between Boston and Washington D.C. by as much as one-third, for instance.
A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
But developing a GPS-based system could take a decade or more, and in the meantime airline executives are exploring ways to reduce their reliance on jet fuel, a kerosene-based oil that currently costs roughly $4.09 a gallon, up 98% in the past year. But developing an alternative hasn't been easy: Jet fuels have to pack enough oomph to power jet engines and at the same time be dense enough not to freeze in the air at -40C—a temperature that turns most biofuels into solids. But progress is coming. The Pentagon, which buys more aviation kerosene than any other group, has successfully tested a jet fuel made from liquefied coal. Airbus, meanwhile, is leading a consortium on a project to replace a third of jet fuel with advanced biofuels extracted from algae and plant oils. The efforts will help lower fuel costs and reduce dependence on crude oil.
This past February, Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson christened the first-ever commercial flight powered by biofuels. In its test flight, Virgin flew a Boeing 747 running on a blend of oils from coconut and Brazilian babassu trees, produced by Seattle-based Imperium Renewables. "Two years ago, we thought this was pie in the sky," says Billy Glover, managing director of environmental strategy for Boeing's commercial division. "But things have evolved very rapidly. Our guess is that in five years we could have commercial biojet fuels on the market."
Projected cost: Around $2 per gallon, or a third less than current prices for aviation kerosene. Coupled with higher fares, biofuels would be cheap enough for airlines to turn a profit. These days, that'd be enough to make many an airline executive go out and collect the coconuts."
With Adam Aston in New York
Also, a couple of reports from KGMB9 this evening about United (bad) and Hawaiian (good):
United Airlines Cuts Staff, Planes Grounded Written by KGMB9 News June 04, 2008, "Sky-high fuel prices are taking their toll on United Airlines. The company announced Wednesday it is laying off more than 1,400 employees and reducing its domestic routes by about 18 percent through next year."
Hawaiian Airlines Adds More 717s to It's Fleet Written by KGMB9 News June 04, 2008, "Hawaiian Airlines has announced that it will expand its interisland fleet with the addition of four Boeing 717-200 aircraft to better meet the needs of Hawaii's interisland travelers in the wake of the shutdown of Aloha Airlines on April 1. Two of the aircraft are expected to enter service in September, while the remaining two will join the fleet in November and December, respectively."
Aloha, Brad
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
"The Math of Costly Energy"
Excellent couple of letters to the editor from Kauai Garden Island News regarding Kauai Island Utility Coop:
"The math of costly energy"
It’s the “same old, same old” business as usual with Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative. Now we “members” know for sure how much the KIUC board cares for our input into board elections. The facade of governance by the “members” has given way to the reality of the “Old Boys’ Club.”
They cared zero for what the members wanted and, without making any effort to inform the public of their pet nominations, chose their old buddies (who had not even bothered to run in the election) to come back and join the club.
One thing they do care about, however, is their ability to continue collecting our outrageous fixed “customer charge” and our constantly ballooning “energy adjustment” fees month after month.
I’ll keep this very simple. I live alone in a small apartment and probably use less electricity than 99 percent of the other people on Kaua‘i. Yet last month my “energy adjustment” charge from KIUC was over $53. At my retail pump cost of $4 per gallon, I effectively purchased about 13 extra gallons of fuel for KIUC. Actually, since they get a bulk discount, my $53 probably bought 20-25 extra gallons for KIUC.
I understand there are about 22,000 residential homes on the island. Leaving aside the larger commercial accounts including businesses, hotels, timeshares and churches (all of which presumably have much larger utility bills) and assuming for the sake of argument that my electric bill is typical (even though presumably the bills for families and large homes would be much higher), I did the following calculations:
If each of the 22,000 residential homes paid $53 last month in “energy adjustments,” that would have brought in an extra $1.166 million in one month to KIUC to help them pay for their fuel, or a total of $13.992 million per year. That is an approximate amount because the charges will undoubtedly increase each month. But who needs that much extra fuel?
Another way to look at it: If each residential “member” (customer) paid for an extra 20 gallons of fuel for KIUC, they would have been forced to provide 440,000 gallons to KIUC for one month, or 5,280,000 gallons per year. Remember this is the most conservative calculation based on my simple, single lifestyle. Remember, too, that these figures do not include the massive amounts collected from commercial “member” accounts.
That’s not all. In addition to the charges for actual electricity used, each residential account also pays a fixed fee of $9.72 each month for a “customer charge.” Thus, those 22,000 homes pay $213,840 each month, or a total of $2.56 million every year just for the “customer charge.”
At what point will people begin to stand up and say, “I’m not going to take this any more?”
Barbara Elmore
Lihu‘e
"Saving energy doesn’t save money?"
A Sunday letter (“The math of costly energy,” Letters, June 1) drove me to scrutinize my KIUC bills.
I had been lulled by using autopay the past year and concerned myself only with checking that I didn’t bounce any accounts. Another lesson learned.
Thanks to B. Elmore’s math calculations, I too discovered that in one year, my energy adjustment charge jumped 100 percent. My first reaction was to question what’s the use of all the energy-saving stuff I’ve put in place all this time? My home has CFS lightbulbs, we live without a dishwasher, air conditioning, clothes dryer, electric water heater, plasma TV. We unplug or turn off lights and small appliances when not in use. Shouldn’t we be rewarded instead based on the kilowatt hours we consume? And what is this monthly “customer charge” of $9.72? Is this a membership fee that’s kind of like a regressive tax?
I am in “shock and awe” at the millions of dollars that our co-op collects per month just from the 22,000 residential customers. If one were to add the total monthly collection from all KIUC customers, how many millions are we talking about? The answer should be of great concern to all of us because: (1) Our bill is directly tied to global oil supply and price; (2) Is KIUC allocating enough money to fund projects in new sources of energy so we have alternative remedies to the skyrocketing costs of oil? KIUC’s goal of 50 percent renewable energy within 15 years from now is too little too late for many of us; for example retirees on fixed income and working-class families. (3) My small household with an average monthly consumption of 200 KW hours is eligible for a refund check under $35. That will go toward a quarter tank of gas for my compact car.
I have a humble suggestion: instead of KIUC rewarding the co-op’s biggest energy users with checks presented in person, shouldn’t the reward go to the biggest customers who demonstrated the biggest reduction in use for the year? Not to sound like “sour grapes” — just a thought.
Elli Ward
Lihu‘e
KIUC members pay $0.42 to $0.43 per kwh for electricity. By comparison MECO customers pay $0.28 per kwh for electricity. Kauai's are the highest electric rates in the country even though there are plenty of renewable energy opportunities here (solar, wind, hydro).
Aloha, Brad
"The math of costly energy"
It’s the “same old, same old” business as usual with Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative. Now we “members” know for sure how much the KIUC board cares for our input into board elections. The facade of governance by the “members” has given way to the reality of the “Old Boys’ Club.”
They cared zero for what the members wanted and, without making any effort to inform the public of their pet nominations, chose their old buddies (who had not even bothered to run in the election) to come back and join the club.
One thing they do care about, however, is their ability to continue collecting our outrageous fixed “customer charge” and our constantly ballooning “energy adjustment” fees month after month.
I’ll keep this very simple. I live alone in a small apartment and probably use less electricity than 99 percent of the other people on Kaua‘i. Yet last month my “energy adjustment” charge from KIUC was over $53. At my retail pump cost of $4 per gallon, I effectively purchased about 13 extra gallons of fuel for KIUC. Actually, since they get a bulk discount, my $53 probably bought 20-25 extra gallons for KIUC.
I understand there are about 22,000 residential homes on the island. Leaving aside the larger commercial accounts including businesses, hotels, timeshares and churches (all of which presumably have much larger utility bills) and assuming for the sake of argument that my electric bill is typical (even though presumably the bills for families and large homes would be much higher), I did the following calculations:
If each of the 22,000 residential homes paid $53 last month in “energy adjustments,” that would have brought in an extra $1.166 million in one month to KIUC to help them pay for their fuel, or a total of $13.992 million per year. That is an approximate amount because the charges will undoubtedly increase each month. But who needs that much extra fuel?
Another way to look at it: If each residential “member” (customer) paid for an extra 20 gallons of fuel for KIUC, they would have been forced to provide 440,000 gallons to KIUC for one month, or 5,280,000 gallons per year. Remember this is the most conservative calculation based on my simple, single lifestyle. Remember, too, that these figures do not include the massive amounts collected from commercial “member” accounts.
That’s not all. In addition to the charges for actual electricity used, each residential account also pays a fixed fee of $9.72 each month for a “customer charge.” Thus, those 22,000 homes pay $213,840 each month, or a total of $2.56 million every year just for the “customer charge.”
At what point will people begin to stand up and say, “I’m not going to take this any more?”
Barbara Elmore
Lihu‘e
"Saving energy doesn’t save money?"
A Sunday letter (“The math of costly energy,” Letters, June 1) drove me to scrutinize my KIUC bills.
I had been lulled by using autopay the past year and concerned myself only with checking that I didn’t bounce any accounts. Another lesson learned.
Thanks to B. Elmore’s math calculations, I too discovered that in one year, my energy adjustment charge jumped 100 percent. My first reaction was to question what’s the use of all the energy-saving stuff I’ve put in place all this time? My home has CFS lightbulbs, we live without a dishwasher, air conditioning, clothes dryer, electric water heater, plasma TV. We unplug or turn off lights and small appliances when not in use. Shouldn’t we be rewarded instead based on the kilowatt hours we consume? And what is this monthly “customer charge” of $9.72? Is this a membership fee that’s kind of like a regressive tax?
I am in “shock and awe” at the millions of dollars that our co-op collects per month just from the 22,000 residential customers. If one were to add the total monthly collection from all KIUC customers, how many millions are we talking about? The answer should be of great concern to all of us because: (1) Our bill is directly tied to global oil supply and price; (2) Is KIUC allocating enough money to fund projects in new sources of energy so we have alternative remedies to the skyrocketing costs of oil? KIUC’s goal of 50 percent renewable energy within 15 years from now is too little too late for many of us; for example retirees on fixed income and working-class families. (3) My small household with an average monthly consumption of 200 KW hours is eligible for a refund check under $35. That will go toward a quarter tank of gas for my compact car.
I have a humble suggestion: instead of KIUC rewarding the co-op’s biggest energy users with checks presented in person, shouldn’t the reward go to the biggest customers who demonstrated the biggest reduction in use for the year? Not to sound like “sour grapes” — just a thought.
Elli Ward
Lihu‘e
KIUC members pay $0.42 to $0.43 per kwh for electricity. By comparison MECO customers pay $0.28 per kwh for electricity. Kauai's are the highest electric rates in the country even though there are plenty of renewable energy opportunities here (solar, wind, hydro).
Aloha, Brad
Airlines' cash reserves may not last long
Look for seat capacity to Hawaii to be further substantially displaced over the next 12 to 18 months should oil/fuel prices continue at current industry unsustainable levels. If fuel prices remain where they are, the visitor industry in Hawaii will be dramatically transformed in the next year and a half.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008806020317
Posted on: Monday, June 2, 2008
"Airlines' cash reserves may not last long"
By Harry R. Weber Associated Press
"ATLANTA — Airlines are cutting U.S. flights, shedding employees, putting off plane orders and even talking about combinations.
But with cash bleeding fast, fuel prices high and credit tight, nothing they do may be able to stop several major airlines' return flight toward bankruptcy, and possibly liquidation.
Unlike when four of the six legacy carriers filed for bankruptcy protection between 2002 and 2005, airlines facing bankruptcy in this climate may find it tougher to reorganize because of tight credit markets and they have fewer unencumbered assets to use as collateral for loans.
"It may be Darwin's law of the fittest. If one of the carriers goes into bankruptcy and liquidated, it would take a lot of seats out of the market and other carriers would benefit," Calyon Securities airline analyst Ray Neidl said...
With losses piling up for most of the major airlines, maintaining a strong cash position is important to avoid the same fate...
"Unlike 2002, 2003, 2004, when it was largely a revenue problem that drove them into distress, this is largely a fuel price problem," said Fitch Ratings analyst Bill Warlick. "You could argue that the risk associated with fuel price spikes is largely uncontrollable in contrast to the revenue problem post 9/11, which was addressed through a variety of measures such as cutting costs."
Eliminating Debt
Several of the carriers used their first trip through bankruptcy protection to wipe away debt, resize their fleets and terminate employee pensions...
American Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, teetered on the verge of bankruptcy before winning employee concessions in 2003. Because of high pension and debt obligations, as well as the hefty price of fuel, the unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp. is again facing the possibility of a future cash crunch.
It had $4.5 billion in unrestricted cash at the end of March, but Neidl projects that AMR could have a negative cash balance by the end of 2009 if oil prices remain at the current level of roughly $130 a barrel. Covenants on some of American's debt require the airline to maintain at least $1.25 billion in unrestricted cash at the end of each quarter through at least the middle of next year.
At the current fuel price level, Chicago-based UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, and Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways Group Inc., both of which have had trips through Chapter 11, also face the potential for precarious cash positions by the end of next year...
The debt covenant issue wouldn't necessarily force a bankruptcy filing, as airlines could re-negotiate debt agreements with lenders or sell assets to pay off debt. Neidl believes airlines would take drastic actions before the end of 2009 if current fuel trends continue...
The airlines are furiously trying to remove domestic flights from the air to reduce costs. At least two have announced plans to cut U.S. capacity by double-digit percentages and trim thousands of jobs. Others, like discount carrier JetBlue Airways Corp., are putting off buying certain new planes.
The price of oil has doubled in the last year. But fare increases have fallen well short of keeping pace with the price of fuel. As their finances have been buffeted, stocks of most major airlines have plummeted by double-digit percentages over the last year...
Neidl said in a recent research note that mergers, which are supposed to make the industry more efficient, may not work in the current environment because there is a large cash outlay up front and high execution risk. He believes the current crisis, which he described as the biggest challenge the industry has ever faced, may serve to cool the merger frenzy..."
Aloha, Brad
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008806020317
Posted on: Monday, June 2, 2008
"Airlines' cash reserves may not last long"
By Harry R. Weber Associated Press
"ATLANTA — Airlines are cutting U.S. flights, shedding employees, putting off plane orders and even talking about combinations.
But with cash bleeding fast, fuel prices high and credit tight, nothing they do may be able to stop several major airlines' return flight toward bankruptcy, and possibly liquidation.
Unlike when four of the six legacy carriers filed for bankruptcy protection between 2002 and 2005, airlines facing bankruptcy in this climate may find it tougher to reorganize because of tight credit markets and they have fewer unencumbered assets to use as collateral for loans.
"It may be Darwin's law of the fittest. If one of the carriers goes into bankruptcy and liquidated, it would take a lot of seats out of the market and other carriers would benefit," Calyon Securities airline analyst Ray Neidl said...
With losses piling up for most of the major airlines, maintaining a strong cash position is important to avoid the same fate...
"Unlike 2002, 2003, 2004, when it was largely a revenue problem that drove them into distress, this is largely a fuel price problem," said Fitch Ratings analyst Bill Warlick. "You could argue that the risk associated with fuel price spikes is largely uncontrollable in contrast to the revenue problem post 9/11, which was addressed through a variety of measures such as cutting costs."
Eliminating Debt
Several of the carriers used their first trip through bankruptcy protection to wipe away debt, resize their fleets and terminate employee pensions...
American Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, teetered on the verge of bankruptcy before winning employee concessions in 2003. Because of high pension and debt obligations, as well as the hefty price of fuel, the unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp. is again facing the possibility of a future cash crunch.
It had $4.5 billion in unrestricted cash at the end of March, but Neidl projects that AMR could have a negative cash balance by the end of 2009 if oil prices remain at the current level of roughly $130 a barrel. Covenants on some of American's debt require the airline to maintain at least $1.25 billion in unrestricted cash at the end of each quarter through at least the middle of next year.
At the current fuel price level, Chicago-based UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, and Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways Group Inc., both of which have had trips through Chapter 11, also face the potential for precarious cash positions by the end of next year...
The debt covenant issue wouldn't necessarily force a bankruptcy filing, as airlines could re-negotiate debt agreements with lenders or sell assets to pay off debt. Neidl believes airlines would take drastic actions before the end of 2009 if current fuel trends continue...
The airlines are furiously trying to remove domestic flights from the air to reduce costs. At least two have announced plans to cut U.S. capacity by double-digit percentages and trim thousands of jobs. Others, like discount carrier JetBlue Airways Corp., are putting off buying certain new planes.
The price of oil has doubled in the last year. But fare increases have fallen well short of keeping pace with the price of fuel. As their finances have been buffeted, stocks of most major airlines have plummeted by double-digit percentages over the last year...
Neidl said in a recent research note that mergers, which are supposed to make the industry more efficient, may not work in the current environment because there is a large cash outlay up front and high execution risk. He believes the current crisis, which he described as the biggest challenge the industry has ever faced, may serve to cool the merger frenzy..."
Aloha, Brad
Hawaii Business: "Something’s Happening Here"
END OF THE LINE: A Kauai man attempts to stop the arrival of the Superferry on Kauai last August.
http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/Hawaii-Business/June-2008/Somethings-Happening-Here/index.php?
Hawaii Business / June 2008 / "Something’s Happening Here"
A string of controversies on Kauai is changing the way people do business. The rest of the state might not be far behind
By Scott Radway
Everything went completely wrong. There was a lone surfer, straddling his maybe 9-foot surfboard, floating in Nawiliwili Harbor, arms raised, staring defiantly at the prow of the 350-foot, high-speed Alakai. The massive boat owned by the Hawaii Superferry venture was making its inaugural trip to Kauai last August and executives were trumpeting how it would make interisland travel cheaper and provide alternative avenues for businesses to send goods between the Islands.
But there was that surfer, caught in one of the most memorable news photographs in recent memory, staring down big business, protecting his island, risking his life.
There were three dozen or so surfers in the water that day and it took the U.S. Coast Guard 90 minutes to clear the water so the Superferry could dock, according to news reports. Then as the passengers got in their cars and drove off the ramp, they were met by threats from protestors numbering upwards of 250.
People reportedly vandalized their vehicles.
One man tried to let the air out of a car’s tire.
“People who do that, they don’t think they have alternatives. They think that is the only way they get heard,” explains Sue Kanoho, executive director of the Kauai Visitors Bureau.
A picture is perhaps worth a 1,000 words and perhaps nothing could better capture the feeling of Kauai residents being overrun by development, being priced out of buying homes, of their rural lifestyle being devoured by rapid development, than that Honolulu Star-Bulletin photo. Indeed, the photo and event garnered attention throughout the state and beyond. There were national newspaper stories and even the international business magazine, The Economist, ran a story about Kauai’s unrest and the state’s sustainability challenges.
Outside of Kauai, people could not help but ask whether the Garden Island was officially antibusiness? In a series of in-depth interviews, Kauai leaders emphatically stated that’s not the case, it’s far more complex than anything so black and white. “From the outside looking in, you may think that. But the question is, do you know who Kauai really is?” asks Kanoho. “It is a place people protect, cherish and honor.”
It’s also now a place where a heightened state of anxiety about development is changing the way people do business.
In late May of last year, Koloa residents were fuming over the amount of dust drifting off construction sites on Kauai’s south shore. What made the issue so grating was that there were 11 projects in progress simultaneously with eight separate developers involved, according to The Garden Island newspaper. If the perceived transformation of the peaceful community into a resort/luxury-home Mecca wasn’t enough to contend with, there was the dust.
It got so bad the developers formed a group called the Dust Management Hui and launched a hotline for people to call for relief if their homes were hit with a dust wave. The dust hotline goes a long way to illustrate why Kauai residents feel smothered, pun intended, by development. Between cost-of-living struggles and fears of being unable to maintain a rural lifestyle on Kauai, people are frustrated with the prevailing economic forces fueling a building boom in luxury homes and resort properties.
“There are a lot of frustrations that cannot be left unaddressed,” says Joy Miura Koerte, board chair of the Kauai Chamber of Commerce and partner in Fujita & Miura Public Relations. “We need to really take the time to figure out where we are going and how we are going to get there.”
The community unrest with the south shore development is just one of many flashpoints. Just up the road in Koloa Town, there was the monkeypod tree controversy. There, a private landowner’s plan to cut down a stand of aged monkeypod trees brought protests and candlelight vigils and threats to boycott the businesses that would fill the commercial center set to replace the trees. A lawsuit cleared the way for the development this year, but community angst is far from abated.
Another noteworthy hullabaloo was over a plan to build a Super Wal-Mart. The heated debate over whether or not big-box stores were good for Kauai’s business community and the island’s rural character spawned a bill banning big-box stores over 75,000 square feet.
Then, of course, there’s the Superferry.
What lies beneath those controversies is what’s on residents’ minds across the state: housing costs, traffic woes, low-wage jobs and environmental degradation. What makes it so much more poignant is the size of Kauai’s community; everything is more personal. To get a better grasp of the situation, Kauai Planning & Action Alliance (KPAA) produced “Measuring What Really Matters, Community Indicators Report 2006,” a definitive study on resident sentiment and struggles. (To read the full study, visit http://www.kauainetwork.org/.) Here is a snapshot of the findings:
• From 2000 to 2005, the number of Kauai residents living below the poverty level has increased by 1,000, from 6,031 to 7,078.
• From 2000 to 2005, Kauai median family income has risen by $5,000, from $55,900 to $60,900, an 8.9 percent increase in actual dollars, yet income fell by 6.9 percent in constant (deflated) terms.
• From 2000 to 2005, median incomes on Kauai have risen slightly while median-housing values have jumped sharply, and the affordability index has dropped from 77 percent to 40 percent. That means a family with a median income has only 40 percent of the income needed to afford a median-priced home.
• The number of homeless jumped from 500 in 2002 through 2004 to 700 in 2005.
• Violent crime rose 4 percent from 2000 to 2004, reaching an all-time high of 341 incidents in 2004.
• A total of 5,000 residential units and more than 6,100 resort units are currently pending or will be built within five years.
It’s not surprising that the future of Kauai looks dusty. “There is a heightened awareness of anything that might impact our quality of life,” says Beth Tokioka, director of the Kauai Office of Economic Development. “Processes are not easy on Kauai right now.”
The Kauai 2000 General Plan was to be the noble sword to carve out a bright future for Kauai. “The General Plan has some really beautiful words in it about protecting the rural character of our island and controlling growth and so forth,” says Kauai councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura.
The problem is, Yukimura says, the plan was never really implemented. The General Plan was a testament to what the community wanted to be, but not a true road map to ensure it was achieved.
The real dirty work in planning is not in coming up with the vision, but in making the hard decisions to achieve it, she says. (The same risks also lie in the state’s 2050 plan, she notes.) Because of course everyone wants better schools, high-paying jobs, affordable housing, less traffic, a secure environment. But there is often a trade-off involved. For example, to obtain affordable housing often more building is necessary, which can impact such things as the environment and traffic conditions.
“We want economic development and we want environmental protection and that is put in the plan. But nobody says how we are going to get there,” she says.
Yukimura says instead Kauai often manages growth by reactionary measures such as a laundry list of approval conditions and at times, litigation. “One thousand conditions is not the answer,” she says. “You have to address the issue before it becomes a controversy.”
Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste, in a prepared statement, also faulted the General Plan in 2000, in particular for failing to take into account all the developments approved in the 1970s and mid ’80s but not yet built. Those developments in places like the south shore did not break ground until recently, when economic conditions were ideal, and his office, he says, had no control over their approval decades ago.
For his part, Baptiste has undertaken updating district development plans, which also provide constructive platforms for community input. His office has introduced legislative measures to address the issue, including a “Use or Lose It” bill that would require developers to start their projects within five years of approval. Baptiste has also introduced a temporary moratorium on agricultural subdivisions to stem sprawl. Why? According to KPAA, from 2000 to 2005, 1,359 new housing lots were cut out on agriculture land, while 1,600 homes were added in town districts.
“It is my hope that this will stimulate further discussion on how we want to grow, including whether we want agriculture to be a viable industry,” Baptiste wrote to Hawaii Business.
In addition, Baptiste’s administration has a number of smaller programs targeted at such things as agriculture growth. The programs includes reopening the papaya disinfestation plant in Lihue, which, when it closed, virtually knocked out commercial papaya farming on Kauai. He is also working such endeavors as on opening 75 acres in Kilauea to lease affordably to farmers. The difficulty for Kauai, though, is that there is no single silver bullet: Solutions to the various challenges are complicated, require trade-offs and take time, in some cases decades.
More often than not, you just have to bite the bullet.
Energy is a perfect example.
Kauai has the highest power rates in Hawaii. Everyone agrees renewable energies are the future. But what people sometimes don’t realize, says Randy Hee, president and CEO of the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, is the difficulty in finding the appropriate renewable sources and also ensuring reliability. Hee says many of the renewable energies such as sun and wind require back-up generation because renewable sources are not 24-7 sources. Renewables also require investment, but typically do not provide immediate savings and the KIUC is not eligible for tax incentives because of its nonprofit status.
That does not mean Kauai is not ambitious. Hee says the KIUC has a number of projects in the pipeline and a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels and being over 50 percent renewable by 2020. That said, in the current state of affairs, people want to see relief today for their power bills. So do Hee and his board. No one lacks the will, he says.
“The solutions are not quick and they are not easy,” Hee says.
Quietly, while some Kauai residents were screaming at Superferry passengers, rudely receiving Gov. Linda Lingle and even castigating local Superferry supporters, many residents were shamed.
People said vandalizing cars is not how local people act.
People said shouting is not how Kauai people work out issues.
Those comments made in the aftermath of the protests underscored a newly arrived, but marked division on Kauai. Kauai residents often describe the riotous group as the vocal minority, many of them, they say, are new, generally affluent arrivals to Kauai. A common practice is to scan the letters to the editor page in The Garden Island newspaper, not so much for content but for the town in which the letter writer lives, to see whether he or she is new to the island.
Kauai Chamber of Commerce president Randall Francisco acknowledges there is definitely an undercurrent of cultural division contributing to divisiveness.
“I think people felt embarrassed,” Francisco says, referring to the Superferry protests. “We as people of Hawaii and Kauai, most of us came from a plantation community. That multicultural upbringing gives us our identity and sometimes for newcomers, there is a disconnect.”
Francisco continues that, in plantation culture, where everyone was so interdependent, you didn’t always express your opinion so negatively, so publically. “Sometimes how we use language, verbal and nonverbal, is the Red Sea that divides us. I don’t fault newcomers, because they don’t share that experience, but the majority of the community does have that as a reference point.”
That does not mean the silent majority is pro-development. The same fears about overdevelopment and loss of rural character are commonly held throughout the community across all demographics. But longtime residents, who have raised families on Kauai and watched children leave for school and not move back because of a lack of jobs, tend to be more moderate when it comes to development, though just as distressed by traffic woes and even more concerned about cost-of-living issues.
“With a lot of issues, there is a silent majority, made up of a lot of local people, born and raised here. They do have the same interests and they do want to preserve our community our culture, our unique social fabric, but really weren’t against the Superferry and understand why the monkeypod trees have to come out,” says Koerte.
“A lot of the longtime people experience the shutdown of the plantations. They understand something has to come in so there are jobs and their children can return, can come home for work,” she says. “They understand something has to happen for us to progress and compete in a global marketplace. They are people who have experienced downturns.”
Where does that leave business and government?
“It’s incumbent upon us to seek out the wants and needs of a large group of stakeholders,” says Tokioka. The challenge though is both cultural and social. When people are working two jobs and struggling to spend time with their families, it is unlikely, even if they were predisposed to speak out, that they would dedicate extra hours to attending council or planning meetings or writing to the newspaper.
Tokioka says a centerpiece of Baptiste’s administration has been providing monthly or bimonthly meetings in communities to seek out a wide representation of community sentiment and also to involve more people in community planning. “The mayor wants to create a dialogue so we can tap into a broader base, to the that greater majority.”
Business, she says, must do the same today on Kauai.
“There is always a concern in business in trying to get something done quickly or efficiently, but I think where we are as an island, it is probably better to take more time and in some cases, a lot more time, and take the input and get buy-in,” Tokioka says. “So you have success at the back-end.”
Is the Superferry a good example of the opposite approach?
“Hindsight is always much easier, but clearly that project is not moving forward as planned,” she says. “You really can’t rush things here. It is better to take a little time and do your due diligence and come out with a better product, embraced by a greater segment of the community.”
The same story is taking place on all the Islands. Maui has several flashpoint developments, including Maui Land & Pine’s since tabled plans for Honolua Bay (See our July 2007 issue.) The Big Island has the luxury development Hokulia. On Oahu, there is Turtle Bay Resort; Kakaako Waterfront is another. Communities feel overrun throughout the Islands. Many are also experiencing similar shifting demographics and more diverse stakeholder groups to incorporate.
Early-stage dialogue with communities about development is critical today.
Francisco says the buzzword is triple bottom line, where a business equally values both its own revenues along with the community and the environment. He says while many areas across the state (and country) are debating that formula, on Kauai, the triple bottom line has become mandatory.
“Your business plan has to include community,” he says. “That is what I consistently say in my messaging.”
It was a Monday in March, when Aloha Airlines shut down. Sixty people on Kauai lost their jobs. Sixty people, some with families, lost their income, their health insurance, their security. By Friday, 50 Kauai business owners and executives had gathered for a job fair, to offer them jobs.
“Sixty people, 50 booths, and a ton of pastries. I was like ‘Oh my God! Whoa! Whoa!’” Francisco recounts, his arms raised in mock protest. “We could have opened up a bakery.”
“People just wanted to say we care. We just wanted to let them know, on Kauai, we are one community. No matter what part of the community you are from, we are still Kauai, whether you are for or against the Superferry, for or against runway expansion, whatever. In the end, it is all about Kauai.”
Francisco, like nearly everyone interviewed, points out that Kauai has a extremely high percentage of people who donate money and time to charity, from business executives to blue-collar workers. Indeed, according to the KPAA study, 88 percent of the community donated to community causes. That includes a stunning 68 percent of households making under $25,000.
That’s what Kauai is, he says.
“That is where all of this is leading. People want to be pono. People want to be good. People want to take care of this place,” Francisco says. “Kauai is not antidevelopment. This is a place with tremendous heart and aloha. People want to know you’re genuine, your intentions are good and if the community is taken care of, the business will succeed.
“It is just time to bring everybody together.”
Survey: Tell Hawaii Business -- and other readers -- how you feel:
► Is the current backlash against development going to hurt or help Kauai in the long run?
Aloha, Brad
http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/Hawaii-Business/June-2008/Somethings-Happening-Here/index.php?
Hawaii Business / June 2008 / "Something’s Happening Here"
A string of controversies on Kauai is changing the way people do business. The rest of the state might not be far behind
By Scott Radway
Everything went completely wrong. There was a lone surfer, straddling his maybe 9-foot surfboard, floating in Nawiliwili Harbor, arms raised, staring defiantly at the prow of the 350-foot, high-speed Alakai. The massive boat owned by the Hawaii Superferry venture was making its inaugural trip to Kauai last August and executives were trumpeting how it would make interisland travel cheaper and provide alternative avenues for businesses to send goods between the Islands.
But there was that surfer, caught in one of the most memorable news photographs in recent memory, staring down big business, protecting his island, risking his life.
There were three dozen or so surfers in the water that day and it took the U.S. Coast Guard 90 minutes to clear the water so the Superferry could dock, according to news reports. Then as the passengers got in their cars and drove off the ramp, they were met by threats from protestors numbering upwards of 250.
People reportedly vandalized their vehicles.
One man tried to let the air out of a car’s tire.
“People who do that, they don’t think they have alternatives. They think that is the only way they get heard,” explains Sue Kanoho, executive director of the Kauai Visitors Bureau.
A picture is perhaps worth a 1,000 words and perhaps nothing could better capture the feeling of Kauai residents being overrun by development, being priced out of buying homes, of their rural lifestyle being devoured by rapid development, than that Honolulu Star-Bulletin photo. Indeed, the photo and event garnered attention throughout the state and beyond. There were national newspaper stories and even the international business magazine, The Economist, ran a story about Kauai’s unrest and the state’s sustainability challenges.
Outside of Kauai, people could not help but ask whether the Garden Island was officially antibusiness? In a series of in-depth interviews, Kauai leaders emphatically stated that’s not the case, it’s far more complex than anything so black and white. “From the outside looking in, you may think that. But the question is, do you know who Kauai really is?” asks Kanoho. “It is a place people protect, cherish and honor.”
It’s also now a place where a heightened state of anxiety about development is changing the way people do business.
In late May of last year, Koloa residents were fuming over the amount of dust drifting off construction sites on Kauai’s south shore. What made the issue so grating was that there were 11 projects in progress simultaneously with eight separate developers involved, according to The Garden Island newspaper. If the perceived transformation of the peaceful community into a resort/luxury-home Mecca wasn’t enough to contend with, there was the dust.
It got so bad the developers formed a group called the Dust Management Hui and launched a hotline for people to call for relief if their homes were hit with a dust wave. The dust hotline goes a long way to illustrate why Kauai residents feel smothered, pun intended, by development. Between cost-of-living struggles and fears of being unable to maintain a rural lifestyle on Kauai, people are frustrated with the prevailing economic forces fueling a building boom in luxury homes and resort properties.
“There are a lot of frustrations that cannot be left unaddressed,” says Joy Miura Koerte, board chair of the Kauai Chamber of Commerce and partner in Fujita & Miura Public Relations. “We need to really take the time to figure out where we are going and how we are going to get there.”
The community unrest with the south shore development is just one of many flashpoints. Just up the road in Koloa Town, there was the monkeypod tree controversy. There, a private landowner’s plan to cut down a stand of aged monkeypod trees brought protests and candlelight vigils and threats to boycott the businesses that would fill the commercial center set to replace the trees. A lawsuit cleared the way for the development this year, but community angst is far from abated.
Another noteworthy hullabaloo was over a plan to build a Super Wal-Mart. The heated debate over whether or not big-box stores were good for Kauai’s business community and the island’s rural character spawned a bill banning big-box stores over 75,000 square feet.
Then, of course, there’s the Superferry.
What lies beneath those controversies is what’s on residents’ minds across the state: housing costs, traffic woes, low-wage jobs and environmental degradation. What makes it so much more poignant is the size of Kauai’s community; everything is more personal. To get a better grasp of the situation, Kauai Planning & Action Alliance (KPAA) produced “Measuring What Really Matters, Community Indicators Report 2006,” a definitive study on resident sentiment and struggles. (To read the full study, visit http://www.kauainetwork.org/.) Here is a snapshot of the findings:
• From 2000 to 2005, the number of Kauai residents living below the poverty level has increased by 1,000, from 6,031 to 7,078.
• From 2000 to 2005, Kauai median family income has risen by $5,000, from $55,900 to $60,900, an 8.9 percent increase in actual dollars, yet income fell by 6.9 percent in constant (deflated) terms.
• From 2000 to 2005, median incomes on Kauai have risen slightly while median-housing values have jumped sharply, and the affordability index has dropped from 77 percent to 40 percent. That means a family with a median income has only 40 percent of the income needed to afford a median-priced home.
• The number of homeless jumped from 500 in 2002 through 2004 to 700 in 2005.
• Violent crime rose 4 percent from 2000 to 2004, reaching an all-time high of 341 incidents in 2004.
• A total of 5,000 residential units and more than 6,100 resort units are currently pending or will be built within five years.
It’s not surprising that the future of Kauai looks dusty. “There is a heightened awareness of anything that might impact our quality of life,” says Beth Tokioka, director of the Kauai Office of Economic Development. “Processes are not easy on Kauai right now.”
The Kauai 2000 General Plan was to be the noble sword to carve out a bright future for Kauai. “The General Plan has some really beautiful words in it about protecting the rural character of our island and controlling growth and so forth,” says Kauai councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura.
The problem is, Yukimura says, the plan was never really implemented. The General Plan was a testament to what the community wanted to be, but not a true road map to ensure it was achieved.
The real dirty work in planning is not in coming up with the vision, but in making the hard decisions to achieve it, she says. (The same risks also lie in the state’s 2050 plan, she notes.) Because of course everyone wants better schools, high-paying jobs, affordable housing, less traffic, a secure environment. But there is often a trade-off involved. For example, to obtain affordable housing often more building is necessary, which can impact such things as the environment and traffic conditions.
“We want economic development and we want environmental protection and that is put in the plan. But nobody says how we are going to get there,” she says.
Yukimura says instead Kauai often manages growth by reactionary measures such as a laundry list of approval conditions and at times, litigation. “One thousand conditions is not the answer,” she says. “You have to address the issue before it becomes a controversy.”
Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste, in a prepared statement, also faulted the General Plan in 2000, in particular for failing to take into account all the developments approved in the 1970s and mid ’80s but not yet built. Those developments in places like the south shore did not break ground until recently, when economic conditions were ideal, and his office, he says, had no control over their approval decades ago.
For his part, Baptiste has undertaken updating district development plans, which also provide constructive platforms for community input. His office has introduced legislative measures to address the issue, including a “Use or Lose It” bill that would require developers to start their projects within five years of approval. Baptiste has also introduced a temporary moratorium on agricultural subdivisions to stem sprawl. Why? According to KPAA, from 2000 to 2005, 1,359 new housing lots were cut out on agriculture land, while 1,600 homes were added in town districts.
“It is my hope that this will stimulate further discussion on how we want to grow, including whether we want agriculture to be a viable industry,” Baptiste wrote to Hawaii Business.
In addition, Baptiste’s administration has a number of smaller programs targeted at such things as agriculture growth. The programs includes reopening the papaya disinfestation plant in Lihue, which, when it closed, virtually knocked out commercial papaya farming on Kauai. He is also working such endeavors as on opening 75 acres in Kilauea to lease affordably to farmers. The difficulty for Kauai, though, is that there is no single silver bullet: Solutions to the various challenges are complicated, require trade-offs and take time, in some cases decades.
More often than not, you just have to bite the bullet.
Energy is a perfect example.
Kauai has the highest power rates in Hawaii. Everyone agrees renewable energies are the future. But what people sometimes don’t realize, says Randy Hee, president and CEO of the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, is the difficulty in finding the appropriate renewable sources and also ensuring reliability. Hee says many of the renewable energies such as sun and wind require back-up generation because renewable sources are not 24-7 sources. Renewables also require investment, but typically do not provide immediate savings and the KIUC is not eligible for tax incentives because of its nonprofit status.
That does not mean Kauai is not ambitious. Hee says the KIUC has a number of projects in the pipeline and a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels and being over 50 percent renewable by 2020. That said, in the current state of affairs, people want to see relief today for their power bills. So do Hee and his board. No one lacks the will, he says.
“The solutions are not quick and they are not easy,” Hee says.
Quietly, while some Kauai residents were screaming at Superferry passengers, rudely receiving Gov. Linda Lingle and even castigating local Superferry supporters, many residents were shamed.
People said vandalizing cars is not how local people act.
People said shouting is not how Kauai people work out issues.
Those comments made in the aftermath of the protests underscored a newly arrived, but marked division on Kauai. Kauai residents often describe the riotous group as the vocal minority, many of them, they say, are new, generally affluent arrivals to Kauai. A common practice is to scan the letters to the editor page in The Garden Island newspaper, not so much for content but for the town in which the letter writer lives, to see whether he or she is new to the island.
Kauai Chamber of Commerce president Randall Francisco acknowledges there is definitely an undercurrent of cultural division contributing to divisiveness.
“I think people felt embarrassed,” Francisco says, referring to the Superferry protests. “We as people of Hawaii and Kauai, most of us came from a plantation community. That multicultural upbringing gives us our identity and sometimes for newcomers, there is a disconnect.”
Francisco continues that, in plantation culture, where everyone was so interdependent, you didn’t always express your opinion so negatively, so publically. “Sometimes how we use language, verbal and nonverbal, is the Red Sea that divides us. I don’t fault newcomers, because they don’t share that experience, but the majority of the community does have that as a reference point.”
That does not mean the silent majority is pro-development. The same fears about overdevelopment and loss of rural character are commonly held throughout the community across all demographics. But longtime residents, who have raised families on Kauai and watched children leave for school and not move back because of a lack of jobs, tend to be more moderate when it comes to development, though just as distressed by traffic woes and even more concerned about cost-of-living issues.
“With a lot of issues, there is a silent majority, made up of a lot of local people, born and raised here. They do have the same interests and they do want to preserve our community our culture, our unique social fabric, but really weren’t against the Superferry and understand why the monkeypod trees have to come out,” says Koerte.
“A lot of the longtime people experience the shutdown of the plantations. They understand something has to come in so there are jobs and their children can return, can come home for work,” she says. “They understand something has to happen for us to progress and compete in a global marketplace. They are people who have experienced downturns.”
Where does that leave business and government?
“It’s incumbent upon us to seek out the wants and needs of a large group of stakeholders,” says Tokioka. The challenge though is both cultural and social. When people are working two jobs and struggling to spend time with their families, it is unlikely, even if they were predisposed to speak out, that they would dedicate extra hours to attending council or planning meetings or writing to the newspaper.
Tokioka says a centerpiece of Baptiste’s administration has been providing monthly or bimonthly meetings in communities to seek out a wide representation of community sentiment and also to involve more people in community planning. “The mayor wants to create a dialogue so we can tap into a broader base, to the that greater majority.”
Business, she says, must do the same today on Kauai.
“There is always a concern in business in trying to get something done quickly or efficiently, but I think where we are as an island, it is probably better to take more time and in some cases, a lot more time, and take the input and get buy-in,” Tokioka says. “So you have success at the back-end.”
Is the Superferry a good example of the opposite approach?
“Hindsight is always much easier, but clearly that project is not moving forward as planned,” she says. “You really can’t rush things here. It is better to take a little time and do your due diligence and come out with a better product, embraced by a greater segment of the community.”
The same story is taking place on all the Islands. Maui has several flashpoint developments, including Maui Land & Pine’s since tabled plans for Honolua Bay (See our July 2007 issue.) The Big Island has the luxury development Hokulia. On Oahu, there is Turtle Bay Resort; Kakaako Waterfront is another. Communities feel overrun throughout the Islands. Many are also experiencing similar shifting demographics and more diverse stakeholder groups to incorporate.
Early-stage dialogue with communities about development is critical today.
Francisco says the buzzword is triple bottom line, where a business equally values both its own revenues along with the community and the environment. He says while many areas across the state (and country) are debating that formula, on Kauai, the triple bottom line has become mandatory.
“Your business plan has to include community,” he says. “That is what I consistently say in my messaging.”
It was a Monday in March, when Aloha Airlines shut down. Sixty people on Kauai lost their jobs. Sixty people, some with families, lost their income, their health insurance, their security. By Friday, 50 Kauai business owners and executives had gathered for a job fair, to offer them jobs.
“Sixty people, 50 booths, and a ton of pastries. I was like ‘Oh my God! Whoa! Whoa!’” Francisco recounts, his arms raised in mock protest. “We could have opened up a bakery.”
“People just wanted to say we care. We just wanted to let them know, on Kauai, we are one community. No matter what part of the community you are from, we are still Kauai, whether you are for or against the Superferry, for or against runway expansion, whatever. In the end, it is all about Kauai.”
Francisco, like nearly everyone interviewed, points out that Kauai has a extremely high percentage of people who donate money and time to charity, from business executives to blue-collar workers. Indeed, according to the KPAA study, 88 percent of the community donated to community causes. That includes a stunning 68 percent of households making under $25,000.
That’s what Kauai is, he says.
“That is where all of this is leading. People want to be pono. People want to be good. People want to take care of this place,” Francisco says. “Kauai is not antidevelopment. This is a place with tremendous heart and aloha. People want to know you’re genuine, your intentions are good and if the community is taken care of, the business will succeed.
“It is just time to bring everybody together.”
Survey: Tell Hawaii Business -- and other readers -- how you feel:
► Is the current backlash against development going to hurt or help Kauai in the long run?
Aloha, Brad
Monday, June 2, 2008
Raising Food and a Cooperative Approach
Reposting this from kauaieclectic.blogspot.com:
Monday, June 2, 2008
Musings: A Cooperative Approach
"...It seems that kicking our addiction to oil is the only way to extricate us from some of our more nefarious military escapades, Afghanistan among them. I came across a very interesting interview with that nation’s President, Hamid Karzai, in the German Speigel Online International. Besides providing a compelling look into the politics of warlords and international coalitions, it served to remind me just how weak and puffy most American journalism is.
Speigel also had a fascinating interview with the UN's Assistant Director-General Alexander Müller on the growing food crisis, which delves into just how complicated the food-energy issue is. Here’s an excerpt:
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What is the main reason for food production no longer keeping up with demand?
Müller: Various factors, including very significantly the rising oil price. Traditional agriculture is itself very energy intensive: It needs oil for fertilizer, pesticides, tractors and transport. To get away from that, many governments are promoting fuels made from agricultural products. This is turn links the price of bread to the price of oil.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Has the food crisis reached its peak?
Müller: Quite the opposite, we're only at the beginning. Unchecked climate change would lead to farmland drying out or becoming flooded. New animal and plant diseases are emerging; yields could fall. We have to produce 40 percent to 60 percent more food, while there is a marked reduction in the land available for cultivation in the south.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: But agriculture is actually responsible for one third of CO2 emissions.
Müller: That is exactly what has to change very quickly, otherwise the system will devour itself. We want to highlight this point during the summit: climate protection is the same as food protection.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Germany's Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer claims biofuels have no impact on food prices, because their production takes up only 2 percent of the arable land.
Müller: Our specialists, as well as other experts, have come to a different conclusion: 20 to 50 percent of the hike in food prices is the result of the demand for biofuel plants. …. In any event, feeding the world has to take precedence over energy production.
Muller’s remarks caused me to reflect on my own recent efforts to cook the taro I grow. Although I’ve been making yummy poi and laulau, my propane consumption has greatly increased because both taro and its leaves need to be cooked for long periods to dissolve the oxalic acid crystals that otherwise give you itchy mouth and throat.
The Hawaiians dealt with this by preparing taro and other food in imu. Wood was used to heat stones, which then did the cooking slowly, in sealed pits. When I visited Rorotanga, they did the same thing, cooking food on Saturday for consumption throughout the week. And it wasn’t like every house had their own imu, either. People shared.
Farmer Jerry told me the same situation occurred in the Portuguese sections of the sugar camps, where every five houses or so shared an oven. Again, just enough wood was used to heat the oven, and the bread was baked through radiant heat.
So it seems that sustainability isn’t just about eating what can be grown locally, but taking a more cooperative approach to its preparation. Maybe that’s what scares some folks about the concept. They just can’t fathom the thought of interacting with others to meet our basic needs — even though we did exactly that for thousands of years. Posted by Joan at 8:08 AM"
Aloha, Brad
Monday, June 2, 2008
Musings: A Cooperative Approach
"...It seems that kicking our addiction to oil is the only way to extricate us from some of our more nefarious military escapades, Afghanistan among them. I came across a very interesting interview with that nation’s President, Hamid Karzai, in the German Speigel Online International. Besides providing a compelling look into the politics of warlords and international coalitions, it served to remind me just how weak and puffy most American journalism is.
Speigel also had a fascinating interview with the UN's Assistant Director-General Alexander Müller on the growing food crisis, which delves into just how complicated the food-energy issue is. Here’s an excerpt:
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What is the main reason for food production no longer keeping up with demand?
Müller: Various factors, including very significantly the rising oil price. Traditional agriculture is itself very energy intensive: It needs oil for fertilizer, pesticides, tractors and transport. To get away from that, many governments are promoting fuels made from agricultural products. This is turn links the price of bread to the price of oil.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Has the food crisis reached its peak?
Müller: Quite the opposite, we're only at the beginning. Unchecked climate change would lead to farmland drying out or becoming flooded. New animal and plant diseases are emerging; yields could fall. We have to produce 40 percent to 60 percent more food, while there is a marked reduction in the land available for cultivation in the south.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: But agriculture is actually responsible for one third of CO2 emissions.
Müller: That is exactly what has to change very quickly, otherwise the system will devour itself. We want to highlight this point during the summit: climate protection is the same as food protection.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Germany's Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer claims biofuels have no impact on food prices, because their production takes up only 2 percent of the arable land.
Müller: Our specialists, as well as other experts, have come to a different conclusion: 20 to 50 percent of the hike in food prices is the result of the demand for biofuel plants. …. In any event, feeding the world has to take precedence over energy production.
Muller’s remarks caused me to reflect on my own recent efforts to cook the taro I grow. Although I’ve been making yummy poi and laulau, my propane consumption has greatly increased because both taro and its leaves need to be cooked for long periods to dissolve the oxalic acid crystals that otherwise give you itchy mouth and throat.
The Hawaiians dealt with this by preparing taro and other food in imu. Wood was used to heat stones, which then did the cooking slowly, in sealed pits. When I visited Rorotanga, they did the same thing, cooking food on Saturday for consumption throughout the week. And it wasn’t like every house had their own imu, either. People shared.
Farmer Jerry told me the same situation occurred in the Portuguese sections of the sugar camps, where every five houses or so shared an oven. Again, just enough wood was used to heat the oven, and the bread was baked through radiant heat.
So it seems that sustainability isn’t just about eating what can be grown locally, but taking a more cooperative approach to its preparation. Maybe that’s what scares some folks about the concept. They just can’t fathom the thought of interacting with others to meet our basic needs — even though we did exactly that for thousands of years. Posted by Joan at 8:08 AM"
Aloha, Brad
Study links sunscreen lotion/oil to coral bleaching
I have always wondered about heavy visitor locations on the beaches, Waikiki...Hanauma Bay...Ka'anapali...etc., where regularly you can visually see the washed off suntan lotion/oil in the water...wondered what it does to life in the water along the shorelines:
http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/02/news/story05.html
"Study links lotion to coral bleaching"
By Helen Altonn
"Beachgoers slathering on lotions to prevent sunburn could be contributing to coral bleaching, says a study reported in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
After experiments in four of the world's coral reef areas, researchers in Italy concluded that "sunscreens, by promoting viral infection, can potentially play an important role in coral bleaching in areas prone to high levels of recreational use by humans."
They estimated that up to 10 percent of the world's coral reefs are at risk for bleaching from swimmers' sunscreens...
In a study supported by the European Commission, Roberto Danovaro of the University of Pisa in Italy led experiments with different sunscreen concentrations in sea water surrounding coal reefs in Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand and Egypt.
Sunscreens usually have up to 20 or more chemical compounds, and certain ones triggered viral infections affecting symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that live within reef-building coral, the researchers said.
Richmond explained, "Bleaching occurs when the relationship between the animal host and resident algae breaks down." Without the algae providing food energy, the coral bleaches, or turns white, and dies.
This can be caused by a number of stressors, including chemicals in water discharge and sunscreens that cause viral infections, Richmond said.
Danovaro's team estimated that 4,000 to 6,000 tons of sunscreen wash off annually in the world's oceans. About 25 percent of sunscreen ingredients on the skin are released in the water within 20 minutes, they said.
Even with low doses, environmental stress occurred within 18 to 48 hours, and complete bleaching of corals occurred within 96 hours, they said..."
Aloha, Brad
http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/02/news/story05.html
"Study links lotion to coral bleaching"
By Helen Altonn
"Beachgoers slathering on lotions to prevent sunburn could be contributing to coral bleaching, says a study reported in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
After experiments in four of the world's coral reef areas, researchers in Italy concluded that "sunscreens, by promoting viral infection, can potentially play an important role in coral bleaching in areas prone to high levels of recreational use by humans."
They estimated that up to 10 percent of the world's coral reefs are at risk for bleaching from swimmers' sunscreens...
In a study supported by the European Commission, Roberto Danovaro of the University of Pisa in Italy led experiments with different sunscreen concentrations in sea water surrounding coal reefs in Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand and Egypt.
Sunscreens usually have up to 20 or more chemical compounds, and certain ones triggered viral infections affecting symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that live within reef-building coral, the researchers said.
Richmond explained, "Bleaching occurs when the relationship between the animal host and resident algae breaks down." Without the algae providing food energy, the coral bleaches, or turns white, and dies.
This can be caused by a number of stressors, including chemicals in water discharge and sunscreens that cause viral infections, Richmond said.
Danovaro's team estimated that 4,000 to 6,000 tons of sunscreen wash off annually in the world's oceans. About 25 percent of sunscreen ingredients on the skin are released in the water within 20 minutes, they said.
Even with low doses, environmental stress occurred within 18 to 48 hours, and complete bleaching of corals occurred within 96 hours, they said..."
Aloha, Brad
SHIP FROM CHINA - The Emma Maersk
Jeff Parker, a very sharp farmer on Maui sent the following to me:
"Brad, Check this one out. Jeff"
"SHIP FROM CHINA - The Emma Maersk - A recent documentary in late March on the History Channel, noted that most all of these containers are shipped back to China, EMPTY yep you heard it right. We send nothing back on most of these ships. What does that tell you about the current state of U.S. trade?"
"Brad, Check this one out. Jeff"
"SHIP FROM CHINA - The Emma Maersk - A recent documentary in late March on the History Channel, noted that most all of these containers are shipped back to China, EMPTY yep you heard it right. We send nothing back on most of these ships. What does that tell you about the current state of U.S. trade?"
"Ship information: Country of origin - Denmark, Length - 1,302 ft, Width - 207 ft, Net cargo - 123,200 tons, Engine - 14 in-line cylinders diesel engine (110,000 BHP), Cruise Speed - 31 knots Cargo capacity - 15,000 TEU (1 TEU = 20 ft3), Crew - 13 people, First Trip - Sept. 08, 2006, Construction cost - US $145,000,000+"
"What a ship....no wonder 'Made in China' is displacing North American goods big time with the likes of this floating continent transporting goods across the Pacific in 4 days no less!!! This is how Wal-Mart gets all it's stuff from China. Get a load of this ship! 15,000 containers and a 207' beam! And look at the crew-size, only 13 people."
"Silicone paint applied to the ship bottom reduces water resistance and saves 317,000 gallons of diesel per year. US aircraft carrier which has a crew of 5,000 men and officers. Think it's big enough? Notice that 207' beam means it cannot fit through the Panama or Suez Canals. It is strictly transpacific. Check out the cruise speed: 31 knots means the goods arrive 4 days before the typical container ship (18-20 knots) on a China-to-California run. So this behemoth is hugely competitive when carrying perishable goods. This ship was built in five sections. The sections floated together and then welded. The command bridge is higher than a 10-story building and has 11 cargo crane rigs that can operate simultaneously."
Aloha, Brad
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