Power plant ‘scheme’
This is in response to Wendell Ka‘ehu‘ae‘a’s Jan. 18 letter in the Tribune-Herald.
Mr. Ka‘ehu‘ae‘a: I’d like to respond to your letter regarding support of the Hu Honua power plant.
Sir, 85 percent of the world’s biomass plants burn a form of trash, commonly referred to as waste-to-energy.
In the case of Hu Honua’s Pepeekeo refurbished plant, it will “harvest” living trees — layman’s terms for clear-cutting forests. I’m certain your kids, grandchildren and even those who don’t believe in global warming are aware of the effects of clear-cutting, and the need for the world’s forests to clean and filter our air.
And then the logging trucks. Five to six per hour hauling tons of freshly cut 50-foot trees from points north and south on our island (Highway 11 through Hilo, south from Honokaa).
Consider the 1,000 gallons of diesel fossil fuel burned weekly by the tractor-trailer trucks and its well-studied harmful effects on not only the environment, but on humans.
Burning wood emits 1.5 times more greenhouse gases than coal! Hu Honua will emit 300,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year.
Hu Honua was given permission to take 21 million gallons of water per day from the island’s aquifer, add chemicals to cool and flush its 2,500-degree burner, then inject the heated water back into the aquifer only yards from our ocean! Think about that.
Hu Honua is planning on burning 20,000 acres of eucalyptus trees and biodiesel fuel, translating into more trucks of the fuel tanker variety on Highway 19.
Not to be forgotten, HELCO will sell us privileged citizens power at 21 cents per kilowatt hour, while the island’s solar farms sell at 11 cents per kilowatt hour.
Sir, regarding your claim there are “no perfect fuel sources”: I disagree. Perfect fuel sources are possibly more abundant in the state of Hawaii than anywhere on Earth — the sun, wind, waves and geothermal. All four are 21st century answer to electricity, a cleaner environment and are in operation around the world!
Burning wood is nothing more inventive or resourceful than that of cavemen. Hu Honua, with HELCO’s sponsorship, should be ashamed of spending $300 million on such a scheme.
Bob Smith
Pepeekeo
Trump’s economy
As long as President Donald Trump didn’t touch former President Barack Obama’s economy, things went smoothly.
But then Trump decided to give Hillary Clinton, George Soros and himself a tax break.
And then the repercussions started.
In order to disguise what is now Trump’s downward trending economy, Trump started the government shutdown, for which he hoped to blame Democrats.
We are headed into a recession because of the changes Trump made to Obama’s economy, much the same way former President George W. Bush damaged former President Bill Clinton’s balanced budget and economy.
To head off America blaming Trump, as they did Bush, Trump decided to create a shutdown in order to disguise the fault of the coming recession and try to lay the blame at the feet of the Democrats.
Keep in mind, Trump talked about the wall but was not going anywhere with it the past two years, but as soon as our economy started to show signs of tanking, suddenly the wall was a line in the sand.
All the while, Vladimir Putin is laughing. And the angry mobs tune to Fox to learn what they think.
Dennis Chaquette
Keaau