State Rep. Mina Morita hopes the lack of bills regarding energy and the environment crossing over from the state Senate to the House doesn’t signal a lack of concern over these issues by senators. While Morita (D-12th District), chairwoman of
State Rep. Mina Morita hopes the lack of bills regarding energy and the environment crossing over from the state Senate to the House doesn’t signal a lack of concern over these issues by senators.
While Morita (D-12th District), chairwoman of the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee, has helped send a slew of bills to the Senate for consideration, few similar measures have crossed over to the House and been referred to her committee, she said.
“I hope their lack of passing anything over to the House side isn’t an indication of their lack of interest,” Morita said. “The only thing they sent over was the hydrogen bill. But the renewable portfolio standards, the net metering (bills) did not come over.”
Alive among the House bills now being mulled by the Senate are some which would establish a statewide beverage container deposit and redemption program, and another to extend to 2006 the state energy conservation income tax credit, which provides incentives for installation of renewable energy and energy-conservation systems.
House Bill 1256 (House Draft 2), which would establish the beverage-container deposit and redemption program, is seen as an economic incentive to recycle, which in turn would help reduce litter on streets and beaches and divert waste from landfills.
In states where so-called “bottle bills” have become law (Oregon, California, Michigan and others), the price of can and bottled drinks goes up to include, say, a deposit of five or 10 cents per container. That deposit is refunded when consumers bring the bottles and cans back to the point of purchase.
It also creates more work in the retail sector during the counting, sorting and storage of the bottles and cans presented for deposit refund.
House Bill 1282 (House Draft 2) would extend the energy conservation income tax credit until 2006, providing incentives for installing solar panels for heating of water and installation of other renewable energy and energy conservation systems.
House Bill 173 (House Draft 2) establishes standards requiring electric utilities to provide a certain amount of their energy from renewable energy sources. The bill moving through the Senate does not currently specify percentage amounts.
House Bill 740 (House Draft 2) requires utilities to disclose their fuel mixture on customers’ bills, and House Bill 1281 (House Draft 1) gives a preference to the purchase of biofuels for use in the state’s motor-vehicle fleet. Biofuels are alternative fuels derived from non-petroleum sources such as used cooking oil, fats, greases, and grease-trap waste.
House Bill 1345 (House Draft 1) adjusts the fuel tax to account for the lower energy content of alternative fuels, and also provides incentives for their purchase. House Bill 1385, House Draft 3 requires electric utilities to provide net metering to customers that generate electricity. Net metering uses a two-way meter to bill customers for their net energy use, which encourages customers to use small-scale renewable energy systems to reduce their electricity bills.
House Bill 1554 (House Draft 2) appropriates money to establish a public-private partnership for hydrogen energy research and development.
It is hydrogen that Morita and others see as the fuel of the future — plentiful and non-polluting, made from water. And companies big and small are rapidly moving forward with technologies which eventually could lead to the replacement of oil with hydrogen as the world’s fuel of choice.
“One of the applications for (hydrogen-powered) fuel cells is motorized bikes, especially in areas like China and Asia where two-cycle engines cause a lot of pollution,” she said. “I imagine there would be a big market.”
Mass production of hydrogen-powered buses and cars is in the near future, with fuel-cell-powered buses expected in mass production as early as 2003, and cars within five years.
A prototypical Toyota Rav4 powered by hydrogen is being developed now, she said.
“Once they go into mass production, again, the prices will drop phenomenally,” she said. When fuel-cell technology was used in the U.S. space program, the cost was millions of dollars per kilowatt hour.
“Now we’re down to about a couple thousand dollars, and we have to drop it down to $50 a kilowatt for market entry. But it’s happening,” she said.
There are companies with the technology in place already, with firms making electrolyzers which add an electric current to water to produce hydrogen. They, like Morita, are waiting (maybe not so patiently) for the price of fuel-cell power to come down so that it’s attainable to the general public.
Some of those firms, aware of Morita’s interest in alternative energy forms for Hawai’i, have spoken with her.
“For hydrogen, technology like electrolysis is already here, already being used. All they’re waiting for is fuel-cell development,” she said. “They don’t see infrastructure as an obstacle. They’ve already put in place systems that can produce hydrogen.”
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
