Solar Water heaters part II

Here is the long version of a letter I just submitted to the Garden Island.  Fortunately, the G.I. has a 250 word limit, so I had to cut this in half.

The County Council’s decision last week to allow Kaua'i to continue to exploit a loophole in a state law which mandates solar water heaters on new homes is disappointing.  But the fact that we allowed this to happen is crushing.  The Kaua’i County Council is not serving the people of Kaua’i, but there is nobody to blame but ourselves.  Every Council member ran for office on a platform of sustainability.  But now they are not making the hard decisions that we voted for them to make.  The tragic part is that it’s easy to understand why.

            There would be an outcry from us, their constituents, if they made a move to mandate solar water heaters.  We’re all guilty of it.  We complain about the bike path and the price of the Kaua’i Bus, while at the same time bemoaning our lack of alternative forms of transportation.  We complain about GMOs and the inedible monocultured corn on our island, while at the same time purchasing produce at a local supermarket which carries everything imaginable except for local produce.  We complain about the high cost of electricity on Kaua’i, while doing everything we can to stop KIUC from pursuing renewable forms of electricity. 

We like to complain.  And the Council is very aware of that.  So they will do everything in their power to not take a stand.  As often as possible.  By the time it came time to vote on the solar water heater mandate at last weeks meeting, it had been proven that solar water heaters are significantly cheaper over time than the alternatives and that they cut down significantly on greenhouse gas emissions.  The mandate wouldn’t cost the people of Kaua’i or the County anything, yet it would reduce 1000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per family, per year.  Basically it was a no-brainer.  But only two supported it.  The rest said that they don’t want to limit personal choice.

Personal choice is what got us into this mess.  Free market capitalism is not working and Earth is facing unprecedented hurdles.  An exploding population which has already exceeded our planets finite resources.  And climate change is the specter in the air.  It’s tangible, but always just out of sight.  While we know that we can’t feed the world, that we’re running out of oil, and that water is going to become scarce.  We don’t know exactly what affects climate change will have on us.  Biblical floods, devastating fires, ocean acidification, sea level rise, collapsing grain and rice yields.  This is all happening right now.  And we are just beginning. 
            This will be the hardest century of humanity’s history.  For once, we can’t rely on someone else to fix the problem for us.  The Federal Government has become impotent.  Big business isn’t going to do it.  It’s up to local governments and individuals.  By ourselves our efforts will be insignificant.  But as an isolated island community, we not only can have an affect but we can be an example for the world.  And if we don’t solve this now, it’s game over. Not only for us, but for our kids, and every future generation. 

Let’s do this one step at a time.  Today, solar water heaters.  Tomorrow, food security and local agriculture.  Next week a carbon tax.  And in a decade we have transformed the world.  But it takes all of us working together.  There is nothing more important. 

 

Solar Water Heaters?

I just returned from testifying for my first time at a county council meeting.  I spoke in support of a measure that could ultimately result in forcing Kaua'i to comply with a Hawai'i state law which mandates a solar water heater on all new homes.  Homes that have other propane appliances or can prove that solar is not cost effective for them can receive a variance for a tankless propane system.  In a shortsighted move, the measure was voted down by the Kaua'i County Council.  The reason being that they don't want to restrict personal choice... which is good.  Because I was starting to think that wearing my seatbelt, not drinking and driving, and having to follow a so-called "speed-limit" were huge infractions on my personal liberty.  Oh yeah, and that huge hole in the ozone layer which is now closing... what is our world coming to when CFCs cannot be manufactured?  Let the kids deal with it, I want my Freon.   

I am speaking here for the first time.  I do not represent anyone.  Though I am a member of the younger generation whom everyone loves to speak for.  I am here to say I am disappointed in the council’s decision last week to reject councilwoman Yukimura’s proposal.  Nearly every council member at last week’s meeting claimed that we need to “get off of oil and be self sustaining,” right before saying that they don’t want to restrict personal choice.  I’m sorry, but you can’t have one without the other.  The seven of you are up there because the people of Kaua’I elected you to make the hard decisions for us.  Collectively, for a variety of reasons, it’s in our best interest to move beyond fossil fuels.  However, until we can attach the inherent negative externalities of fossil fuels to their price, it is rarely in our financial short term interest.

A few things stood out to me from last week’s presentations.  I am not an accountant nor an expert on gas, but as a member of the younger generation, I am pretty proficient with Google.  Councilwoman Yukimura claimed that a solar water heater is cheaper over time than the alternatives, and the Gas Company claimed the opposite. The Gas Company used a 4% interest rate on their cost of money calculations and Councilwoman Yukimura didn’t add in the cost of money. Which accounted for the huge discrepancy between councilwoman Yukimura’s numbers and their numbers.  When questioned on the 4% interest rate, the Gas Company said that they were just following federal guidelines. However, according to the Federal Office of Management and Budget, they should be using a more realistic 1.3% interest rate.  Which would eliminate much of the discrepancy between their numbers.

Further, any projections on the price of fossil fuels are going to be extremely subjective.  Propane is a byproduct of natural gas extraction.  The US produces 90% of its own natural gas, and most of the rest comes from Canada.  Despite a record number of new wells drilled every year, Canada’s natural gas production is declining at an average rate of 7.5%.  And it is widely expected to disappear completely by 2030.  In the US, there has been a 200% increase in new wells since 1991.  But production has only gone up 15%.  Even though we are drilling more wells, we are extracting less gas.  Meaning we are working exponentially harder for ever diminishing returns.  

An obvious conclusion is that the price of Propane is not going to be stable for long.  Which is not the same cheap and secure future that the Gas Company has outlined for us.

In the end though, the financial analyses are irrelevant.  You can’t put a price on climate stability or the environment.

As much as we’d all like to believe otherwise, climate change is occurring faster than any models have predicted and the affects will be devastating for Kaua’i and the world.  We can slow the trend, but it will take a heroic effort on everyone’s part.  Mandating solar water heaters on Kaua’i will just be a drop in a very large bucket, but it is one of a million necessary steps that we all have to take.   Each gallon of propane burned creates 12 pounds of Carbon Dioxide.  The average Kaua’i family would probably use somewhere around 5 gallons of propane per week with even the most efficient tankless propane water heater. That is 720 pounds of carbon emissions per year per family. Add in the liquefaction, gasification, and transportation of the propane to Hawai’i and it amounts to nearly 1000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per tankless propane water heater.  The numbers on a traditional gas water heater are 22% more.  There is no reason that we should be emitting that much carbon when alternatives exist.

To be honest, I just purchased a gas on demand water heater.  As I was shopping around for a photovoltaic system for my house, I asked multiple solar contractors for a quote on a solar water heater.  All of them flat out told me that they couldn’t compete against a tankless system.  So, with a limited budget and limited research, I went for the option with the cheaper up-front cost.  Now, three months later, I regret the decision.  I didn’t do the research that I should have done.  I didn’t understand the volatile and unpredictable nature of natural gas reserves.  And most of all, I didn’t understand that I would be contributing to the perpetuation of our unsustainable fossil fueled lifestyles.  As an individual it can seem hard to make a difference.  But as a community, we can have a real impact.  Not only on reducing our collective footprint, but by being an example for the rest of the world.  And if we forget that, it’s game over.  Please, for myself, for every other youth on this island, and for our future children, I beg you to make the hard decision. Not just this time around, but every time.  We won’t get a 2nd chance.