Kauai County considers plan to reduce island’s carbon output

LIHUE, Kauai (AP) — Kauai officials are looking to decrease the island’s effect on the environment by limiting carbon output.

Kauai County officials are considering a climate action plan in the budget. The plan would strategically target ways to reduce the island’s carbon footprint on a large scale.

Ben Sullivan with Kauai’s office of economic development said the plan would begin in the fall and would establish emission reduction in the next five years.

“We can say hey, we’re Kauai and we’re too small to matter, But anyone can say that,” Sullivan said. “We just have to be hungry for the changes we need to make as a community.”

He said the plan, which is not yet in planning stages, would likely focus on gathering information on emissions by various sectors and then working on curbing that output. After five years the plan would be updated.

“Plans have a bad reputation for being expensive and then just sitting on a shelf. But without a plan, it’s easy to wallow,” Sullivan said.

Some carbon-cutting measures are already being considered as part of the county’s multimodal transportation plan, such as increasing Kauai’s walkability and bike-ability and increasing the service area of the bus system, he said.

The county is also looking to use the methane gas emissions from the Kekaha landfill to power its buses, but Sullivan said that’s also in the beginning stages and is a complicated proposition.

“It’s past time for us to champion this,” Sullivan said. “It’s going to take a lot for us to reach our goals, but you get there by thinking about it, not by ignoring it.”