Gov. David Ige opposes Hawaii importing LNG, says state should focus on renewable energy
Hawaii Gov. David Ige said Monday that the state does not need liquefied natural gas as part of its energy future and says Hawaii should focus on developing renewable energy rather than importing LNG.
“I have reached the conclusion that Hawaii does not need LNG in our future,” said Ige, one of the keynote speakers at the Asia-Pacific Resilience Innovation Summits & Expo in Honolulu. “It’s time to focus all of our efforts on renewables. We will oppose the building of LNG facilities.”
LNG is being pegged as a cleaner and lower cost transitional fuel for Hawaii. Prior to Monday’s statement, the governor had said he would support the importation of LNG only as a bridge towards integrating more renewable energy.
The state upped its renewable energy goal earlier this year to 100 percent renewables by 2045. Ige noted that any time and money spent on LNG is time and money not spent on renewables.
“LNG will no longer save us considerable money,” Ige said. “Capital plans are anything but small. It is a fossil fuel and it is imported.”
