Everything we eat, drink, drive, or otherwise use requires power. While Hawaiʻi has made strides to transition its electrical grid to renewable energy, the economy still overwhelmingly relies on fossil fuels. “When you look at Hawaiʻi’s total energy mix, and that’s everything, talking about electricity, transportation, all the stuff we use energy for, about 85% of our total energy use comes from petroleum-derived products,” said Scott Glenn, the state Chief Energy Officer. Each year, Hawaiʻi imports roughly 30 million barrels of oil to meet its energy needs.”There’s a pretty regular rhythm of every two weeks, 10 days to two weeks, we have an oil tanker pulling up off the shore of Oʻahu and unloading oil,” Glenn said. Without those regular shipments, life as we know it would grind to a halt. The price tag for this oil dependence? Glenn says…
Despite Hawaiʻi’s clean energy strides, oil keeps its grip on the islands
