Thursday, October 23, 2014             Print   Email 
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 Retweet  Hawaii needs to invest in its own energy future  By
Jay Fidell    Because our energy resources have become so
famous, offshore interests see Hawaii as the Energy State and
are coming here to develop them. In the process, we often treat
those interests more favorably than our own.  Is energy the new
tech industry we've been waiting for? No, not really. Make no
mistake: Energy is not tech although it certainly consumes tech.
Tech generates intellectual property; energy generates energy.
And most of the capital for energy projects is coming from
offshore, leaving us more as installers and early adopters than
as principals and stewards.  We may be tempted to let global
interests like First Wind do the heavy lifting for the
development of our energy resources, but that's too easy.  We
should learn from them and emulate what they do, but we should
focus on developing a local industry with local c