Guests Cover Interisland Cable, Other Energy Issues As We Connect with a Listener in Far-Off Germany

Josh Strickler and Henry Curtis in HPR's studio.

We jokingly billed yesterday’s program as the President Obama Call-in Show, since he’s spending the year-end holidays in Hawaii and -- as they used to say in radio – was "within the sound of my voice.”

Predictably, that didn’t happen, but we did score the unusual – our first call from Europe from a listener in Germany who was following Energy Futures via online streaming.

Our guests were Representative Hermina Morita (at right), who was on Kauai; in the studio were State Renewable Energy Facilitator Josh Strickler and Life of the Land executive director Henry Curtis.

A highlighted topic was the planned underwater electric cable system that would link Oahu, Molokai and Lanai into an electrical grid for the first time. Neighbor islanders called with a concern that their islands would be negatively impacted by development of 200+ megawatt wind farms that would feed power to an energy-hungry Oahu. You can listen to the hour-long program at Hawaii Public Radio’s website once it’s posted there (sometime later today).

The first show of the New Year next Monday will be dedicated to transportation energy issues. Our intended guests will discuss development of an alternative to petroleum-based jet fuel and the latest plans to create a fleet of electric vehicles in the islands.

Energy Futures is broadcast "live" 5-6 pm HST Mondays on KIPO-FM (89.3 in the islands) and on the Internet via streaming.