Ka`u News Briefs Monday, Sept. 16, 2013

Pahala Pool Party met its goals raising money on Saturday for the South Swell swim team comprised of 21 youth
members who will compete around the island. Swim meets are sponsored by the county Department of Parks &
Recreation. Pahala Pool is open daily, free to the public. Photo by Tanya Ibarra

BLUE PLANET HAS RELEASED ITS FIRST ANNUAL Energy Report Card for Hawai`i. The progress report provides a perspective on Hawai`i’s energy transformation, taking a look at five key metrics including Transportation, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Smart Grid and Economics. Supporting drivers are also analyzed to identify gaps in current industry efforts, areas of success and opportunities for improvement.

      Blue Planet developed the report card in response to the need for an objective examination of Hawai`i’s progress to a clean energy future and the benchmark of energy independence by 2030.

      Positive performance in energy efficiency stands out as a bright spot according to the report card, with per capita electricity generation dropping steadily below the target trend since 2008.

      The report card also shows that transportation, which accounts for two-thirds of Hawai`i’s fossil fuel consumption, remains an area that demands improvement. Land transportation offers the most immediate opportunities for reducing fuel consumption, the report card stated. Greater fuel efficiency, alternative fuels, lowering mileage and electric vehicles all have roles to play. “The key challenge is identifying substitutes for aviation fuels, highlighting the need to focus on local biofuels for transportation rather than electricity generation,” said Blue Planet founder Henk Rogers.

Graph from hawaiienergyreportcard.com

      Blue Planet plans to update the Energy Report Card annually to keep progress toward energy independence on track and focus solutions in areas that need it most. “We welcome your input to help make next year’s report card even better,” Rogers said.
      Questions and comments can be addressed to reportcard@blueplanetfoundation.org.
      See hawaiienergyreportcard.org.
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HAWAI`I’S GOAL OF GENERATING 70 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 was the topic at the fifth annual Asia-Pacific Clean Energy Conference held on O`ahu recently. Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Richard Lim, director of the state Department of Business Development & Tourism, spoke at the conference about the need for an undersea cable to transmit electricity among the islands.
      In the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Alan Yonan, Jr. reported Abercrombie saying at the conference, “We are going to take full advantage and press forward relentlessly on our diverse resources such as geothermal, solar, wind, hydro, bioenergy and biomass.
      “We believe that connecting the islands through an integrated, modernized grid is the best way to utilize our islands’ best resources at a scale that will reduce cost. This means lower rates on the neighbor islands as soon as they’re connected,” Abercrombie said.

DBEDT director Richard Lim

      According to Duane Shimogawa, writing for Pacific Business News, Richard Lim told attendees that “the long-term vision for Hawai`i is geothermal, but that’s on the Big Island, and it’s going to require an undersea cable.” Lim said that, because the project could take one to three decades, “we need liquefied natural gas as a transitional fuel.”

      As reported previously in Ka`u News Briefs, University of Hawai`i’s Economic Research Organization said the possibility of switching to natural gas in Hawai`i is not straightforward because of the logistics and infrastructure costs (liquefaction, shipping, regasification) of bringing natural gas to Hawai`i. 
      In the Hawai`i Reporter, Michael Hansen, of Hawai`i Shippers, listed challenges associated with an undersea cable: enormous cost, lack of existing excess wind energy capacity in Maui County; technical difficulties of crossing the very deep and wide Alenuihaha Channel between Hawai`i and Maui Islands; problems of developing excess geothermal energy on Hawai`i Island; and political opposition.
      See staradvertiser.com, bizjournals.com and hawaiireporter.com.

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Sen. Josh Green

KA`U’S STATE SEN. JOSH GREEN offered his thoughts on Hawai`i’s state-mandate employer health insurance coverage and Obamacare, the national mandate for health care insurance, in a Politico story by Kyle Cheney. Green, chair of the state Senate Health Committee, said the state’s nearly 40-year-old employer mandate, formally known as the Prepaid Health Care Act, has become an accepted part of the state’s health care system and is, for the most part, taken for granted. “There is almost no mention of the Prepaid Health Care Act here among anyone,” he said. 

      Cheney offered a comparison of Hawai`i’s employer-mandated health care coverage to Obamacare: In Hawai`i, Cheney reported, employers of any size are required to offer coverage to anyone working more than 19 hours per week, while the federal mandate applies to businesses with more than 50 full-time employees, with full time defined as 30 hours per week. 

      The price of coverage in Hawai`i’s program can’t be more than 1.5 percent of a worker’s income, and the federal mandate says affordable coverage is 9.5 percent of income.

A crew removing the antenna from
KAHU radio station.
Photo byJulia Neal

      Regarding Obamacare, Green told Cheney that many of the state’s 90,000 uninsured are young and healthy and unlikely to sign up for Obamacare, despite fines they would be charged. “I think that many of these individuals will not see becoming insured as a benefit that outweighs the penalties, and therefore will not engage,” he said. “As a physician, I would have preferred an approach that focused more on access to services rather than access to coverage, which will be of minimal benefit if there aren’t more doctors and nurses to care for patients.”
      See politico.com.
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HAWAI`I PUBLIC RADIO IS BUYING a new antenna to go up on the pole by the KAHU radio station building on Maile Street in Pahala. Mike Titterton, president and general manager of the statewide HPR, said this morning that he expects that broadcasting from Pahala will resume with HPR2 programming in early November. He said HPR2 will initially reach Pahala and nearby communities until HPR puts equipment on communication towers in the district to cover the entire south side of the island with programming and Civil Defense alerts. Titterton said the owners of the building are donating equipment space and the pole to re-start up KAHU with HPR2 programming. KAHU shut down local programming in April. For the new programming, see hpr2.org. HPR had hoped to use the old KAHU equipment, but it was removed and put up for sale, Titterton said, delaying the startup of HPR2 in Ka`u, originally scheduled to have occurred by now.

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Tours of Volcano Winery's grounds showed off wine grapes and tea.
Photo by Julia Neal

MARIE BOTHOF, OF VOLCANO WINERY, said their first Harvest Festival held yesterday was a big success. The event sold out, with a mix of local residents and visitors. She and her husband Del hope to have another one next year. Attendees enjoyed a variety of wines, pupus, entertainment by Lito Arkangel and tours of the vineyard, tea and fig gardens, greenhouse and vat room.

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Del and Marie Bothof, of Volcano
Winery. Photo by Julia Neal

KOHALA ANIMAL RELOCATION AND EDUCATION SERVICE is coming to Ka`u in November and December. KARES offers free spay and neuter clinics for dogs Tuesday, Nov. 5 and Tuesday, Dec. 3 at St. Jude Episcopal Church on Paradise Circle in Ocean View. Contact KARES to make an appointment at 333-6299 or pets@kohalaanimal.org.

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KA`U’S JAYVEE GIRLS VOLLEYBALL team hosted Konawaena on Saturday and beat the Wildcats in two sets 25-9 and 25-20. The Wildcats overcame the Trojan varsity girls team in three sets, 25-14, 24-14 and 25-21. The Trojans travel to Hilo tomorrow and to Kealakehe Saturday.

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KA`U RESIDENT DICK HERSHBERGER BRINGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory founder Thomas Jaggar to life tomorrow during A Walk into the Past. Programs begin at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center then explore Jaggar’s work space, the Whitney Vault, in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.

KA`U RESIDENTS ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE in this week’s Hawai`i County government meetings via videoconferencing from Ocean View Community Center. Committees meet tomorrow, and the full Council meets Wednesday at 9 a.m.

Volcano House manager Rudy Fao and his wife take part in the first
Harvest Festival at Volcano Winery yesterday. Photo by Julia Neal

      All meetings take place at Council Chambers in Hilo.
      Agendas are available at hawaiicounty.gov.

HILO ONE PERFORMS WEDNESDAY AS PART of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park’s ongoing Na Leo Manu: Heavenly Voices presentations. The group features Likeke Teanio on lead `ukulele and slack key guitar, Aaron Agres on electric upright bass and Russell Mauga on 12-string guitar. The free program takes place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. 
at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium. Park entrance fees apply.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

ALSO SEE KAUCALENDAR.COM AND FACEBOOK.COM/KAUCALENDAR.

Ka`u News Briefs Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013

Del Bothof, of Volcano Winery, shows Japanese visitor Ko Ueno a new crop of grapes. The winery holds its first
Harvest Festival this afternoon. Photo by Julia Neal 

ERADICATION OF LITTLE FIRE ANTS on Hawai`i Island, including Ka`u, would cost about a billion dollars, according to University of Hawai`i planning student Mike Motoki. 

      Teresa Dawson reported in Environment Hawai`i that, at the 21st annual Hawai`i Conservation Conference, Motoki said mitigating the ants and preventing their spread would be a more economical and successful approach, costing about $70 million over 10 years.

Little fire ants live on the ground and in trees.
Photo from hawaiiinvasivespecies.org

      Motoki estimated that damages from the ants could add up to $170 million per year, including interruptions in interisland trade and tourism. His model showed 23 percent of plant nurseries on the island being infested, causing businesses on other islands to stop importing plants from here.
      Motoki suggests that a strategy focusing on suppression in the agricultural, nursery, and lodging sectors would likely yield more economic benefits than focusing on residential, school, and park sectors.
      See more at environment-hawaii.org.
      To comment on or “Like” this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Sen. Mazie Hirono

“I HAVE BEEN A LONG-TIME SUPPORTER OF MARRIAGE EQUALITY,” U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said in a statement supporting Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s call for a special legislative session on the issue. “In 1998, when I was running for re-election as Hawai`i’s lieutenant governor, I bucked the conventional political wisdom of the day – which was that anyone in Hawai`i seeking office should support a constitutional amendment that would have, in effect, banned same-sex marriage – and became the only statewide official to oppose the amendment. 

      “We’ve come a long way in the 15-plus years since that event: a majority of Americans now believe that any loving, committed couple should have the right to marry. We have a sitting president who championed marriage equality and won a second term. The people of Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington all voted overwhelmingly in favor of equality. And just this summer, the Supreme Court overturned the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act.
      “That is tremendous progress.
      “Now it’s Hawai`i’s turn. We shouldn’t have to wait any longer for this fundamental civil right to be recognized in our state. Let’s get it done.”

      To comment on or “Like” this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Ka`u fifth-grade girls are invited to sign up for GEMS.
Photo from Jamie Pardau

KA`U’S FIFTH-GRADE GIRLS CAN STILL SIGN UP for 2013 Girls Exploring Math and Science program at Sheraton Kona Resort and Spa at Keauhou on Thursday, Nov. 14. Registration deadline for forms to be postmarked is Friday, Sept. 20. Forms are available at public and private schools. 

      Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. The fee is $20 per girl. Scholarships are available, and no girl will be turned away for financial reasons. Sponsorship of girls from individuals or businesses will be accepted.
      Some of the workshop topics this year are SCUBA diving, architecture, veterinary medicine, astronomy, dentistry, land surveying, Zumba, archaeology, robotics, chemistry and culinary science. Early registrations offers best choice of workshops.
      For more information about GEMS, to sponsor a girl, or to request a registration packet, call Laurel Gregory at 969-8833 or lgregory@hawaii.edu.
      To comment on or “Like” this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

THE ANNUAL KA`U CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ART SHOW begins two weeks from tomorrow, on Monday, Sept. 30, at CU Hawai`i credit union building in Na`alehu. The theme is The Beauty of Ka`u. There are five categories for entries: graphic, sculpture, wood, photography, and craft. The fee is $5 per entry, and no more than three entries may come from one artist, with no more than one entry per category. All pieces must have been completed in the last 12 months and be for sale for the usual price. Entries are accepted Friday afternoon, Sept. 27 and Saturday morning, Sept. 28.

Aloha Honu, by Nancy Stafford, won first place in photography
at last year's Ka`u Chamber of Commerce art show.

      The keiki division is for children in grades 1 through 6, one entry per keiki. Keiki categories are graphics and photos, no larger than 8.5 by 11 inches, including frames, if any. The entry fee is $1. Keiki art is not eligible for the cover of The Directory and not for sale. Only the first 60 keiki exhibits are accepted.
      A reception to view the winners and greet the artists takes place from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5, with light refreshments at the CU Hawai`i credit union building in Na`alehu. Announcement of the adult winner of the popular vote takes place at 11:30 a.m. This art will be featured on the cover of The Directory 2014, with appropriate credit being given inside. The ballot, a numbered ticket, will also be entered into a drawing for door prizes to be held each hour, and the winner does not need to be present. Various Ka`u merchants are donating prizes.
     A panel of local artists judges entries and awards prizes in each category, including Best in Show. Each category has first-, second-, and third-place awards and, if appropriate, as many as two honorable mentions. Ribbons will be given for each of the prizes, and all first-prize winners will appear in The Directory 2014.
      Entry forms are available at local schools and merchants and at the door during art drop-off hours on Sept. 27 and 28. All entries must be picked up from the building by the artist between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5 or between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 7.
      For more information, call 939-8449.
      To comment on or “Like” this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

VOLCANO WINERY’S FIRST HARVEST FESTIVAL is today from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event includes wine, pupus and music. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Call 967-7772 or email volcanowinery.com.

KA`U HIGH & PAHALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Community Council meets tomorrow at 4 p.m. at the SCC room near the main office.

Dick Hershberger, of Ocean View, portrays Thomas
Jaggar every other Tuesday.

KA`U RESIDENT DICK HERSHBERGER BRINGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory founder Thomas Jaggar to life Tuesday during A Walk into the Past. Programs begin at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center then explore Jaggar’s work space, the Whitney Vault, in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. 

MIND, BODY, SOUL & TEA is the topic at Tea for Tuesdays this month. JoAnn Aguirre, tea educator and member of the Hawai`i Tea Society, offers an hour of tea talk, a delicious scone and a cuppa. In honor of breast and ovarian cancer awareness, Tuesday’s tea talk focuses on the health benefits of tea – the second most widely consumed beverage in the world, after water. The free program at Volcano Art Center’s Ni`aulani Campus in Volcano Village begins at 2 p.m. For more information, call 967-8222 or visit teachingtea.com.

KA`U RESIDENTS ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE in this week’s Hawai`i County government meetings via videoconferencing from Ocean View Community Center. Committees meet Tuesday, and the full Council meets Wednesday at 9 a.m.
      All meetings take place at Council Chambers in Hilo.
      Agendas for are available at hawaiicounty.gov.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

ALSO SEE KAUCALENDAR.COM AND FACEBOOK.COM/KAUCALENDAR.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES

Ka`u News Briefs Saturday, Sept. 14, 2013

Hannah's Makana `Ohana performed during the Kupuna Hula Festival in Kona this week. Photo from Nancy Stafford

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SAID IT’S SEEING PROMISING SIGNS of improvement in student achievement in Race to the Top states and warning that it’s too early to draw sweeping conclusions, reports Nirvi Shah, of Politico. Some state officials also said they are finding the competition useful. The department’s statements were in response to a report criticizing the four-year program that was created in 2009. 

      “No one ever doubted that change this big would be hard, and while we have worked with states to make necessary adjustments, the big picture is that states’ efforts are largely in keeping with the scope and timeline of their plans,” an Education Department spokesman told Shah. “The department will continue to work with states to support what is working, to make necessary adjustments and to understand where we can learn and improve.”

Elaine Weiss Photo from aasa.org

      An organization called the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education issued a report concluding that the program to reform education and raise student achievement is not reaching its goals. “States made unrealistic and impossible promises” to raise student achievement and close achievement gaps “to degrees that would be virtually or literally impossible even with much longer timelines and larger funding boosts,” the report said.
      According to Elaine Weiss, national coordinator of the organization and author of the report, Race to the Top fails to address poverty-related impediments to learning. Weiss called for a more targeted focus on poverty over testing and accountability.
      Weiss quoted from reports that “make starkly clear the damage inflicted by child poverty on students and the education system. One report by the Council on Foreign Relations said, “The real scourge of the U.S. education system — and its greatest competitive weakness — is the deep and growing achievement gap between socioeconomic groups that begins early and lasts through a student’s academic career.”

Graph from Broader, Bolder Approach to Education shows disparity of
school absenteeism between student economic groups.

      Another report Weiss quotes said: “The manifestations of child poverty influence both the educational opportunities available to children and the educational outcomes that they will likely achieve. [These include income-based disparities in] family structure and behaviors, food security, parent employment, health insurance, exposure to toxins and child care…. Given the strong connection between educational success and economic disadvantage, we might expect education policy to focus on ways to overcome the effects of poverty on children. Yet most of today’s education policies have different foci.”
      “Race to the Top addresses only a narrow range of the damage” created by poverty, Weiss claims.
      Noelle Ellerson, associate executive director for advocacy and policy for the American Association of School Administrators, told Shah that “Congress should allocate resources across states and schools rather than repeatedly diverting some of that money to competitive grant programs in the midst of an ongoing recession,” “That would go further toward helping all students but especially those who are from low-income families or have disabilities — the children who are the main focus of federal education policy.”
      In its own progress reports, the Education Department has noted states’ struggles to deliver on all the promises made in exchange for Race to the Top money. It had flagged some states, including Hawai`i, for not delivering on what they promised. In July, the Hawai`i State Department of Education received notification from the U.S. Department of Education that its Race to the Top grant is no longer considered “high-risk” and is in good standing.
      The full report is available at boldapproach.org.
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HOUSEHOLDS IN HAWAI`I PAY FOUR TIMES MORE than the average U.S. household and nearly seven times the households in Utah, where the residential energy cost is the cheapest in the nation, according to University of Hawai`i’s Economic Research Organization. While the U.S. average for April 2013 hovered at 12 cents/kwh, Hawai`i paid 37 cents/kwh for electricity in the residential sector.
      UHERO breaks down residential energy consumption by source. While electricity supplies 90 percent of households in Hawai`i with their energy needs, the two major sources in the U.S. — natural gas and electricity — each comprise 42 percent of energy consumption. “Hence, Hawai`i is not only consuming a larger share of electricity, but also at skyrocketing prices. In contrast, the U.S. is consuming a smaller portion from electricity at significantly discounted prices compared to Hawai`i,” UHERO states. “This, combined with a large share of cheap natural gas in the U.S. household consumption portfolio, explains the large disparity in the cost of energy — particularly in the residential sector — in Hawai`i and the U.S.
      UHERO says the possibility of switching to natural gas in Hawai`i is not straightforward because of the logistics and infrastructure costs (liquefaction, shipping, regasification) of bringing natural gas to Hawai`i.
      See more at uhero.hawaii.edu.
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Richard Ha

HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, WE THROW AWAY at least seven megawatts of electricity per day, according to Richard Ha, owner of Hamakua Springs Country Farms. Ha referred to geothermal energy tapped at night when people are sleeping, saying it’s enough to power 4,550 homes or more.
      “HELCO doesn’t say that the seven megawatts of electricity are ‘thrown away.’ They call it ‘curtailed,’ but ‘curtailed’ means it goes unused. It’s wasted. Thrown away,” Ha said in a Community Voices Contribution in Civil Beat.
      Ha is a founding member of the Big Island Community Coalition, a group that wants to make Big Island electricity rates the lowest in the state. “We want to find a way to utilize this ‘thrown away’ resource, which could be used to greatly benefit the people of the Big Island.
      Ha offers suggestions on uses of this resource and potential benefits:

• “We could use it to generate hydrogen, and for public transportation. 
• “We could explore making ammonia for fertilizer, and as a potential energy carrier between the Hawaiian Islands. 
• “We could use it in university research, to engage the minds of our young people. 
• “It would remove the excess electricity from Puna, and relocate it to an appropriate location. 
• “It would address fear of the industrialization of Puna. 
• “We would make good use of a resource that is currently being wasted. 

      “We currently use oil here in Hawai`i to produce 70 percent of our electricity, and the price of oil (that is used to produce that electricity) has quadrupled in the last 10 years,” Ha concludes.
      See more at civilbeat.com.

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Rick Stone Photo from Nancy Stafford

HANNAH’S MAKANA `OHANA PARTICIPATED in the Kupuna Hula Festival at Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay this week. They received compliments from other groups and attendees on their diversity of culture and their performance of How Great Thou Art.

      Halau members had made their own lauhala bracelets, seed lei and head lei in workshops led by members of the Hawaiian Civic Club of Ka`u.

Sandy Ooka Photo from Nancy Stafford

      Kumu Hannah Uribes said everyone had a great time and enjoyed performing very much.

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DURING A GUIDED HIKE AT THE KAHUKU UNIT of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park tomorrow, participants hike to an overlook on Upper Palm Trail to be oriented to numerous prominent geological features of the eruptions of the Mauna Loa’s Southwest Rift Zone. The 1.5-hour hike begins at 11:30 a.m.

VOLCANO WINERY’S FIRST HARVEST FESTIVAL is tomorrow from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event includes wine, pupus and music. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Call 967-7772 or email volcanowinery.com.

KA`U HIGH & PAHALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Community Council meets Monday at 4 p.m. at the SCC room near the main office.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

ALSO SEE KAUCALENDAR.COM AND FACEBOOK.COM/KAUCALENDAR.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES