Count on Hawaii — tied for No. 1 as the the state with the highest percentage of renewable energy — to deliver yet another blow to B.C.’s lofty liquefied natural gas (LNG) ambitions.

On July 15, the state’s public utilities commission recently shot down a proposed $4.3 billion takeover of the Hawaiian Electric Companies (which provide 95 per cent of the state’s electricity) by Florida-based NextEra Energy in a 265 page ruling.

NextEra, the largest provider of the wind power in the U.S., was positioned to play a key role in financing the importing of 800,000 metric tons per year of LNG from FortisBC’s Tilbury LNG storage facility in Delta for use in an upgraded power plant on the west coast of Oahu.

The deal, struck in May between a Fortis subsidiary and the Hawaiian Electric Company, would have lasted for 20 years beginning in 2021. The LNG would have been exported by WesPac Midstream via its proposed terminal on the Fraser River.

But Hawaii has committed to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2045 — only four years after the LNG contract would expire — which was a major factor in the utilities commission’s decision to reject the takeover.

26 Million Tonnes of CO2 Rejected

Voters Taking Action Against Climate Change (VTACC) estimates the 20-year deal could generate 26 million tonnes of carbon pollution.

“I think it’s a rejection of B.C.’s core argument for LNG: this notion that it’s somehow a useful step in the transition to renewables and a bridge fuel,” says VTACC director Kevin Washbrook. “Hawaii said ‘we’re going to skip that step and go straight to renewables.’ I think it’s a very big deal.”

The contract between the Fortis subsidiary and the Hawaiian Electric Company was cancelled shortly after the decision by the utilities commission.

There were five major components to the verdict, including concerns about benefit to ratepayers and maintained competition. While there wasn’t a specific reference to the impacts of importing LNG as a factor in kiboshing the proposal, the commission clearly stated the parties didn’t “adequately disclose their plans” on meeting Hawaii’s clean energy targets.

Renewables For Profit Over Diversification?

In what could be taken as a bit of a passive-aggressive slight, the commission concluded the section by noting that it was “left to speculate whether this was simply an oversight, or, possibly, indicative of a predisposition for utility-scale solutions.”

NextEra has been criticized for its tendency to only favour renewables “when it serves its own profit goals.” A major subsidiary, Florida Power & Light, has opposed rooftop solar installations and donated to astroturf groups that allegedly attempt to confuse customers.

In June 2015, Hawaii Governor David Ige introduced a series of energy bills, one of which attempts to “democratize renewable energy” by allowing renters and condo owners to buy electricity from sources such as community-based solar farms. Such an approach seems to stand in stark contrast from that of NextEra.

At last count, 17 per cent of Hawaiian Electric customers have rooftop solar, including 32 per cent of customers on Oahu, the most heavily populated island.

Hawaii Utilities Commission Shoots Down Plan To Import #LNG from B.C. https://t.co/f80g49d9jx #bcpoli #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/JwytsLfpBH

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) July 25, 2016

B.C. a “Big Megaproject Kind of Government"

Washbrook adds that Hawaii’s approach also serves as a rebuke of sorts to the way the B.C. government has approached energy policy in recent years.

“They’re a big megaproject kind of government: whether it’s Site C dam or the Massey Bridge. With LNG, they’re looking for the home run that’s going to do everything,” he says. “They’re slowing scaling back their expectations: a year ago it was going to be everyone’s hip replacement would be paid for by LNG and ‘if you want better schools we better have LNG.’ And it’s not just how the world works anymore.”

In February 2015, FortisBC announced a 10-year contract with BC Ferries, helping justify the company’s $400 million expansion of its Tilbury facility that began the previous October.

In June, the company noted: “A further expansion at the Tilbury LNG facility would be required if a recently announced agreement to supply 800,000 metric tonnes of LNG annually to Hawaiian Electric moves forward.”

Review Process for LNG Allegedly Undermined

In late 2013, the B.C. government issued an exemption to FortisBC’s expansion plans, something then explained by minister of energy and mines Bill Bennett as: “Government wanted to get out of the way and allow the transportation fuel component of the LNG industry develop quickly.”

Then, in June 2015, the federal government decided that B.C. should head up the environmental assessment of the proposed $175 million WesPac LNG terminal in spite of a recommendation from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency that the project warranted a federal review.

Washbrook emphasizes that such decisions have undermined the processes, noting that such proposals should be assessed in a cumulative fashion (something the expert review panel of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency will figure out in future months).

“It’s ironic that in Hawaii, it was the utilities commission that said ‘we’re not going to allow you to import LNG because it’s not in the public interest,’” Westbrook says. “B.C.’s fettering of its utilities commission of doing its role and it was up to some other jurisdiction’s utilities commission to say ‘no, this is a bad idea.’ It kind of came back to bite them.”

Image: Province of B.C./Flickr

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The steady march of renewable energy, primarily wind and solar, toward mainstream usage continued apace in 2014.

Here are the top 5 clean energy revolution stories in the U.S. this year:

• Solar And Wind Continued To Surge In The U.S.

In November 2014, nearly three-fourths (71.82%) of the 873 megawatts (MW) of new electricity generation capacity installed in the U.S. was powered by wind and solar, according to data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Clean energy installations kept up at a furious pace this year, with renewable sources providing the majority of newly installed electricity generation capacity in nine of the past 11 months.

The Obama Administration has made renewable energy targets a key aspect of the emissions reductions it hopes to achieve with the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, but those targets have been criticized as not nearly ambitious enough. Many states like California, Colorado and Hawaii, have already set their own goals that meet or beat those proposed in the EPA's plan. Local governments in cities like Austin, TX and Burlington, VT are committing to strong clean energy policies, as well.

Perhaps they're inspired by the example set by countries like Scotland, which has shown that it is possible to generate more than enough electricity to meet all household needs via renewable sources.

Renewable energy (including water, wind, solar and geothermal sources) now accounts for more than 15% of total installed generating capacity in the U.S.

• California And Texas Set Renewable Energy Records

The fact that California and Texas both set renewable energy records this year points to a clear trend of renewable energy scaling up nationwide in blue and red states alike. Solar had a huge year in 2013, as well, with California, Arizona and North Carolina taking the top three spots in terms of new solar capacity installed. As divided as the U.S. is along partisan lines these days, one thing we can all agree on is that the time has come for clean energy to supplant antiquated fossil fuel technologies.

• Federal Renewable Energy Loan Program Is Paying Off

Opponents of clean energy tried to use the failure of solar panel maker Solyndra in 2011 as a political cudgel to bash all government support of the renewables sector, specifically targeting the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Program Office, which has made some $21.71 billion in loans to help spur the growth of technologies like utility-scale solar energy and electric vehicles.

So it was kind of a big deal when the Energy Department reported that the loan program has reached solvency just two years later. The program’s $780 million in losses has been more than made up for by the $810 million in interest already collected. Though this doesn't mean the program itself will generate any monetary profits, the fact that electric car manufacturer Tesla was able to repay its $465 million loan nine years early shows that the program is having the intended effect of helping to build a robust clean energy economy.

• Utilities Are Trying To Steal The Rooftop Solar Business Model, And The Walton Family Is Trying To Kill It

On the face of it, the news that utility companies are now trying to steal the rooftop solar business model might sound like bad news—and the same could probably be said of the fact that the Walton family, owners of Walmart, are using their family foundation to try and destroy the rooftop solar business model altogether.

But the fact that both the utility industry and the billionaire Waltons now see distributed rooftop solar as such a threat that they are either trying to co-opt the business model or defeat it altogether shows that they see it as a viable alternative to dirty energy. And well they should.

Solar, for instance, accounted for 36% of all new electricity generation capacity installed in the U.S. through the first three quarters of 2014, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The average price of a solar PV panel has dropped by 63% over the past three years, so it's no wonder that some 600,000 households and businesses have gone solar. Residential solar led industry growth through Q3 2014, with installations up 58% over last year.

If this kind of growth can be sustained, it represents a huge threat to the business models the utility companies and the Walton family have used to build their highly profitable empires. Renewable energy will revolutionize the way we power our society, which is what utilities are finally, begrudgingly, coming to accept, even if it isn't anything more than a belated attempt to cash-in.

Meanwhile, distributed energy systems will democratize who profits from energy generation, which is what the corporatist Walton family is hoping to stop.

In other words, 2014 presented plenty of evidence that the clean energy revolution is at hand.

• Solar Could Be The World’s Biggest Source Of Energy By 2050

The International Energy Agency released two “Technology Roadmap” reports this year showing that solar photovoltaic (PV) systems could supply 16% of the world's electricity needs by 2050, while concentrated solar power (CSP) plants could provide another 11%. In other words, solar could be the world’s single largest source of energy within the next few decades—but only if politicians and other policymakers provide “clear, credible and consistent signals” of support for renewables, according to the IEA.

But the future is not only bright for solar. Another report, by the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace International, showed that wind power could provide 25-30% of global energy needs by 2050 if fossil fuel companies and other vested interests don’t get in the way.

China’s commitment to produce 20% of its energy from zero-emission sources by 2030 as part of the historic climate deal it struck with the U.S. could have a big impact on the global market for renewable technologies.

A worldwide shift to renewables would not only make sense as a means of lowering emissions and combating climate change, but, according to two reports published by the Climate Policy Initiative, it would also make economic sense, saving the global economy as much as $1.8 trillion compared to sticking with fossil fuels.

As the inventor Thomas Edison said in a 1931 conversation with his friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone: “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Here's to hoping 2015 moves us closer, rather than farther, from Edison's dream.

Image Credit: wang song / Shutterstock.com

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This is a guest post by Evangeline Lilly, Canadian actress.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a Canadian actress who has been living abroad in Hawaii for the past ten years. I have been involved in such well-known projects as the television series “Lost”, the indie hit “The Hurt Locker”, the blockbuster film “Real Steel” and the upcoming second and third “Hobbit” films.

To hear Evangeline Lilly tell her story, listen here:

I grew up in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta surrounded on all sides by the never-ending golden fields of wheat that so signify the Canadian prairies. From there my family moved to British Columbia where flat, open plains were replaced with majestic, mountain vistas and beautiful green valleys. Trees, rain, snow, farms, wildlife, snow peaked mountains and insects defined my upbringing.  

From my Grandfather’s homemade cabin in the Gulf Islands to our summers spent camping on the Okanagan Lake, as a Canadian I was always surrounded by natural beauty.

I remember when I was summoned away from Canada. There was a job waiting, it offered a lot of money, and it meant I would move to Hawaii…Hawaii: paradise. If you know anything about my history, you’ll know that that job was my role as “Kate” on the television series Lost and you’ll know that I took it and left Canada…never to move back.  

So now, I have been living in “paradise” for ten years. Do I miss home? Always. Every day that I’m gone. Because, you see, being Canadian is in my bones, it’s an identity that I can’t and don’t want to escape. Tropical beaches with turquoise waters are beautiful, but my heart wells and my soul sings when I see pine tree covered mountains and stretches of interminable deciduous forests.

I am Canadian. I can’t help myself. Beavers, and moose, and bears, and squirrels all make me feel proud. Snow, and ice, and lakes, and rivers are all a part of me. The Rockies, Niagara, the Great North, and Hudson’s Bay are symbols of who I am. Rosy cheeks, frostbite, neighbours, and hard work are all a part of my Canadian identity.

When I think of home, I think of the wilderness. Canada is one of the last natural expanses left on planet earth, but right now, that vestige is being seriously threatened.  

The tar sands in Alberta, the construction of new pipelines, the industrial abuse of clean water, the elimination of environmental laws and mistreatment of First Nations peoples are some of the greatest threats to our identity as Canadians. We are known as harmonious people: living in harmony with ourselves, with the rest of the world, and with nature.  

But our response to these issues has not been in keeping with that reputation. In a time when the world needs to band together in order to learn how to live in harmony with nature, I would have expected Canada to be leading the charge, but we’re not.  

Preserving nature in Canada is not just about Global Warming – it’s about preserving our heritage, our history, and our harmony: our identity.

Will you stand against the damages being done to our wilderness? Will you stand up for nature because as a Canadian, nature has shaped you?  

I am Evangeline Lilly and I am Canadian. What are you?

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