Monday, May 17, 2010
Comment on Hawaii’s obsession with electric cars
I’m going to highlight one more comment today, because I wish I had written it myself.
This one is from Kolea, on the post " Hawaii’s obsession with electric cars and the color "green"":
Thanks Larry & Henry for suggesting we look at bit more critically at recent official efforts to "go green." SO many of these projects seem to repeat a familiar pattern. Large companies cozy up to government officials to win subsidies, tax breaks, waivers from regulations, in order to launch a profitable business. Development of the COnvention Center, the SuperFerry, proposals for off-shore fish farming, etc, etc. Our poor legislators (of both parties) fall over themselves to support these projects and demonstrate they are "pro-business." Most of these folks have little ofr no business experience (or judgment) and should not be in charge of deciding which businesses are viable or worthy of taxpayer support.
Most of the alternative energy projects are for overly centralized, corporate controlled efforts. The Lanai and Molokai wind farms, with the undersea cable are of this sort. The Better World Electric car proposal, too. (Congrats to Henry and you for calling this an Israeli company. The commercial press always insists on calling it a California company, though its principals are all Israelis. The link to Henry's story on this is good).
Let's focus on projects which weaken existing monopolies without creating new ones. Let's help people escape from the clutches of HECO and the oil companies. Dispersed energy generation, for homeowners and small businesses are now economically viable and need help in removing artificial HECO obstructions to their rapid expansion.
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Comments:
Hi Larry!
You say you wish you had written it, but if you had, I'm sure it would have had fewer typos.
These are becoming more frequent in my posts nowadays. I suspect there is an organic cause. Let us watch as my brain breaks down.
So many of the "green" projects under Gov. Lingle (and others) are just boondoggle green-washing big projects. What we need is individual, decentralized projects with a few tweaks to our centralized infrastructure like time-of-day pricing on electricity.
I am a HUGE fan of electric cars on Maui -- but not of charging stations (except at the workplace, perhaps)
What I'd like to see are laws which allow lower speed electric cars to go on any non-freeway road. Then I could charge my cheap, easy to maintain, electric car and travel all around.
Right now, there are these barriers:
- Inexpensive electric cars aren't easily licensed or insured in Hawai'i
- 25mph NEVs can't go on roads with speed limits over 35mph which constrains you to your own town
- Although my solar PV essentially gives me time-of-day pricing because I can trade my daytime generation for night time charging, others don't have PV
Let's start tearing down the antiquated Hawai'i laws and regulations that stand in the way of us "little people" benefiting from electric cars.
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Hi Larry!
You say you wish you had written it, but if you had, I'm sure it would have had fewer typos.
These are becoming more frequent in my posts nowadays. I suspect there is an organic cause. Let us watch as my brain breaks down.
# posted by
: May 17, 2010 at 4:30:00 PM HST
: May 17, 2010 at 4:30:00 PM HST So many of the "green" projects under Gov. Lingle (and others) are just boondoggle green-washing big projects. What we need is individual, decentralized projects with a few tweaks to our centralized infrastructure like time-of-day pricing on electricity.
I am a HUGE fan of electric cars on Maui -- but not of charging stations (except at the workplace, perhaps)
What I'd like to see are laws which allow lower speed electric cars to go on any non-freeway road. Then I could charge my cheap, easy to maintain, electric car and travel all around.
Right now, there are these barriers:
- Inexpensive electric cars aren't easily licensed or insured in Hawai'i
- 25mph NEVs can't go on roads with speed limits over 35mph which constrains you to your own town
- Although my solar PV essentially gives me time-of-day pricing because I can trade my daytime generation for night time charging, others don't have PV
Let's start tearing down the antiquated Hawai'i laws and regulations that stand in the way of us "little people" benefiting from electric cars.
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