Extracted from:
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 By The Molokai Dispatch Staff
TMD: As you know, one thing on people’s minds is the Big Wind project. How do you feel about the Big Wind project and the proposals right now.
SCHATZ: Let’s start with what we agree about. What we agree about is we ought to move off of oil because we’re in an extremely vulnerable position. I think we also agree that as we move forward with clean energy projects, that wherever those projects are located, that the communities in those areas ought to share in the benefit. After that, there are going to be some disagreements, there is going to be some heat around making this happen.
When you think about it, we’re at 90 percent fossil fuel, and in order to move from 90 percent imported fossil fuel to clean energy we’re going to actually have to see, touch and feel the generation of energy. There’s no magic wand we can wave where we get clean energy without seeing, touching or feeling it, or paying for it. And so, this is part of a process. Now what we have to do as we move forward with clean energy is we listen to community voices, and we do everything in a way that is fair. But I think it’s early in the process, and there’s a lot of room for finding common ground, and part of where we’re coming form is to try to make sure that everyone remembers that we’re all in this together. And we may have disagreements about how and what and where, but nobody is disagreeing that we need to move off of oil. The question becomes which technologies we’re gonna pick, who pays for it, and where does it go. So those are tough questions, but it’s a pretty important moment in our history that we’re all collectively committed to getting off of oil because that just wasn’t the case in the past.
TMD: How do you respond community members who feel like this is going to place a big burden on Molokai for the benefit of Oahu?
SCHATZ: I think people, wherever they are, ought to be treated fairly, and ought to be given consideration if they’re going to be the ones generating the electricity. And what that looks like, whether that’s in dollars or some other consideration, I think is for the community [and] the public utilities commission to decide upon together, hopefully by consensus. The truth is Oahu is not in a position to generate its own energy, there’s not enough land, and so Molokai has an opportunity to benefit from the fact that they can provide electricity to Oahu. So it’s just a matter of configuring an arrangement so that Molokai gets its fair share.
TMD: Should the community stay so opposed to Big Wind, and their mind isn’t changed, do you still think this is the right path?
SCHATZ: I think it depends on how you define community. It’s very early in the process, and I’m confident that we can find ways to make renewable energy work and still have respect for and appreciation for the places where the energy gets generated. So I don’t want to get through a hypothetical about well what if it doesn’t work out, because I think that would be a couple of years from now, but I really do think there are models that work. For instance, with Puna on the Big Island, geothermal, there was strong opposition to that and now because the model has changed, you have many of the same people who were opposed to the project asking for additional wells and additional geothermal energy. Why is that? Because their opposition in the ’70s wasn’t about being opposed to geothermal energy, it was about a sense that it wasn’t fair. And so if you do these things in a way that’s fair, then you can get maybe not everyone unanimously in favor of something, but you can get some degree of consensus. And I think as long as you’re respectful and fair, that’s the right way to do things.