In my column in the Star-Advertiser on June 12th I talked about Liquid Natural Gas as an intermediate fuel to supply the generators while we work things out on renewables.

I got two interesting comments re that particular notion:

1. Some people feel we ought to go to LNG and forget about renewables. I suppose that’s based on the fact that LNG is cheap and plentiful, so why spend time and effort and political capital and pay more developing renewables when LNG is such an easy solution.

2. Mike Hansen wrote on op-ed piece in the Star-Advertiser on April 29th noting that the Jones Act makes it impossible for foreign bulk carriers to deliver LNG from the mainland to Hawaii and that there are no U.S. flag tankers available that can do the job; one would have to be built at a price we can hardly afford.

I disagree with the first comment. We need to press on with renewables no matter how attractive clean burning fossil fuels may be. that's what the Clean Energy Initiative is all about.

On the second comment, no man alive has done more to protect and preserve the Jones Act and the Passenger Services Act, for the benefit of the marine unions and sometimes at the expense of the State of Hawaii. But now it’s time for our senior senator to create an exception to the Jones Act to allow LNG to come to Hawaii.