Issue Position: Sustainability & Green Job Creation

Issue Position

Hawaii should be a leader in clean energy use and development. We have the ideal environment for developing clean energy technologies that would simultaneously decrease the cost of energy, reduce pollution, draw international business and bring better jobs to Hawaii. But we consistently fail to make any substantial progress in this area.

Two years ago, I participated in a series of meetings with government and business leaders from Hawaii and Indonesia where we discussed the various ways Hawaii could benefit from establishing trade relations with Southeast Asia. The possibility of exporting clean energy technology was a consistent topic of discussion. But Hawaii isn't making enough progress with things like wave energy, which would be incredibly useful to a country like Indonesia. Again, we need more leaders who can think past what we've always done in order to be able to realize our full potential.

Source