A Call For Clean Energy Now

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Aloha! Hoping you and your ohana are enjoying the summer. Here are a few things happening around town:

Calling for Climate and Clean Energy Legislation on World Oceans Day

I joined other elected officials, environmental groups and community leaders at a news conference on June 8 (World Oceans Day) to call on the U.S. Senate to pass comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation this year. The news conference was organized by the Conservation Council, our state’s oldest wildlife organization, founded in 1950. I made the following statement that highlights the need for action at the federal level:

“Federal climate change and clean energy legislation is critical to the future of our Islands. The Gulf oil disaster brings home how vulnerable we are because of our dependence on foreign oil. Most people have forgotten that back in 1977, the oil tanker Hawaiian Patriot caught fire and sank 300 miles off the coast of Honolulu, spilling 30 million gallons of crude. This was roughly three times the 10.7 million gallons that spilled from the Exxon Valdez. What saved us from a huge disaster were strong trade winds and ocean currents pushing the oily mess westward away from the Islands. The question is not if we will have a disaster but when, if we keep importing more than 40 million barrels of oil each year and don’t make a major push toward renewable energy now!”

Apartments to Get Free CFLs

Blue Planet Foundation and Hawaii Energy are sponsoring a great program to give away 36,000 Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) on a first-come, first-served basis to apartment buildings. By signing up with the program, they can replace one CFL for every old-style incandescent bulb that is turned in. As you may know, CFLs use one-fourth the amount of electricity that old-style light bulbs do, and they save more than $100 in electricity costs over the life of the bulb. To participate, please go to this link and fill out the form: blueplanetfoundation.org/cflexchange. If you have any questions, please call Eric Batalon at 954-6144.

Listen-Story

My next “Listen-Story” community meeting will begin at 9 a.m. July 24 at Kamokila Community Park in Honokai Hale.

Contact Sen. Gabbard at 586-6830 for assistance, or e-mail him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).