HAWAII’S WAVE POWER

Motion for the ocean; Rep. Cynthia Thielen seeks federal funding for a sea-powered Hawai‘I
Emily Hobelmann, January 27, 2010 (Honolulu Weekly)

"Rep. Cynthia Thielen [a wave energy advocate] is one of a dozen legislators from across the nation meeting with top White House officials on renewable energy issues …[They are] members of the Coalition of Legislators for Energy Action Now…"

[Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R-Hawaii:] "For any coastal state that has a wave climate that is appropriate for wave energy, I am advocating for wave energy. And it’s not just for Hawaii, but it’s all the coastal states that could tap that powerful and amazing resource…"

Hawaii's gets a new buoy. (click to enlarge)

[Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R-Hawaii:] "…[Hawaii] can’t reach the goal of the Clean Energy Initiative, which is 70 percent clean energy by the year 2030, unless we tap the power of the ocean. And so that’s why I’ve been such a proponent for wave energy for the last seven years, saying we need to take the steps like they’re doing in Europe…providing government support…[and setting] up, for example, wave hubs, which is actually an underwater socket where the wave energy converters can be plugged into that underwater socket. They can test their devices and then the energy can be fed into the grid…"

[Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R-Hawaii:] "…[There are functional wave energy systems in place…[and] one that the president saw when he surfed off of the marine base at Pyramid Rock…There’s a much more major project going in on Maui: Oceanlinx is putting in two wave energy converters off of Maui that will be providing power to the grid…"

click to enlarge

[Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R-Hawaii:] "We’re going back to say…to Congress and the president, we want clean energy legislation now. And we want it now because the states have been taking the lead, but they need the federal government to step in like it did under President John Kennedy, when the “go to the moon” project was announced and the goal was to get there within 10 years, and with America’s ingenuity they got there in eight…"

[Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R-Hawaii:] "…[O]ne of my models is Theodore Roosevelt, who established the National Park System, and he was a Republican. So I think people need to redefine how they box Republicans into a certain definition. I’ve been a green Republican all of my adult life…[I want to tell the President that] wave energy converters can provide 80 percent of all the power that Oahu needs…But it’s not just the president, we’ll be [telling]…his top advisers…we need the federal support and the federal funding to get wave test centers set up. Not just in Hawaii, but in other states…so the international companies will…come and [build] their systems using local talent, using local employees…That’s what I want to see happen…We need [Congress] to fund and we need them to take a look at how significantly this is being done in European countries and why they’re the leaders and we’re not."