Time to act Time to act ADVERTISING More delays voted by the Hawaii Energy Coucil must please the Wall Street owners of HELCO. Now they can continue to make record profits from their oil-fired plants and ignore cheap, reliable non-polluting
Time to act
More delays voted by the Hawaii Energy Coucil must please the Wall Street owners of HELCO. Now they can continue to make record profits from their oil-fired plants and ignore cheap, reliable non-polluting geothermal power.
I pay about 42 cents per kilowatt-hour, or four times the U.S. average of 12 cents. In Iceland, the state-owned utility charges customers about 3 cents a kilowatt-hour, about one-fourteenth what Big Island electricity costs.
It is my impression that after its replacement of Barnwell, Ormat Technologies has pretty much controlled Puna’s noxious emissions. Ormat’s worldwide operations and leading technologies would make it easy for them to rapidly expand Big Island generation facilities sited away from residential areas. Ormat charges HELCO as low as 6 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity from its new 8-megawatt power plant. Why does HELCO charge us 42 cents a kilowatt-hour?
Before we can enjoy the cheap, pollution-free energy that advanced technology can bring us, Hawaii politicians have to adopt a “can do” attitude and refrain from delaying and opposing much-needed progress based on outdated factors and insufficient knowledge. It also has to rein in or replace the existing power monopoly.
Allan Dougherty
Hilo
About reusable bags
With all the recent debate regarding plastic bags, this is an opportune time to remind shoppers of good sanitation practices regarding reusable shopping bags.
In the May 9 Journal of Infectious Diseases, the first scientific documentation of norovirus transmission via a reusable bag was reported.
In October 2010, a young soccer player who was experiencing norovirus infection symptoms returned home without rejoining her teammates. She did leave them packaged food and fresh grapes that she’d kept in a reusable grocery bag that was stored in the bathroom she had used.
Vomiting and flushing the toilet produced aerosolized viruses that landed on the bag; touching the contaminated bag transmitted the viruses to their hands, and the viruses were ingested when the sealed packages were opened and the food eaten.
Their chaperon and seven other soccer players reported similar symptoms within 72 hours of returning home. This report strongly advises users of reusable grocery bags to wash their bags regularly to reduce the risk of contamination.
Aurora A. Saulo
Extension specialist in food technology, UH-Manoa
