Flip Off Switch and Replace the Power Clunker; Conservation Seen as Fastest Way To Get Off Oil

SAIC's Michael Chang and Ray Starling in HPR's studio today.

The fastest way to reduce Hawaii’s oil dependence isn’t through renewable energy development; it’s through energy conservation, according to Ray Starling and Michael Chang, managers of the Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program.

They were our guests on Energy Futures today on Hawaii Public Radio, and although Starling and Chang are supporters of home-grown energy, they touted good old energy efficiency as the quickest way to make a significant difference in cutting off our oil umbilical. Alan Lloyd, long-time Hawaiian Electric engineer, contributed to the show by calling in with his endorsement of heat pumps as a significant energy conservation technology.

Their energy efficiency program’s website is still in development as Science Applications International Corporation eases into the program’s management, which began on July 1. The show is archived on the Internet: https://archive.org/details/090824-ef-saic-re-conservation