Big Inroads on Jet Fuel Options Decades Away

Keoni Wagner and Pat Takahashi

Here’s a switch. Rather than write about this week's Energy Futures show myself, I referring you to Pat Takahashi’s blog. He was a guest on the show and was taking notes while I moderated the conversation.

With him in the studio was Keoni Wagner of Hawaiian Airlines, and on the phone were Tom Todaro, CEO of AltAir Fuels in Seattle, and John Heimlich, vice president and chief economist of the Air Transport Association in Washington, D.C.

Pat’s review of the show seems complete to me. I’ll just note the feeling of disappointment that arrived when the guests agreed that we won’t see significant gains in substituting biofuel for fossil-based jet fuel until the 2020’s at the earliest. As Pat notes, this is a decades-long quest, and we’ve already lost decades in arriving at this point.

Next week’s guests will be the co-chairs of the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum – Sharon Miyashiro and Mike Mamnett, both of the University of Hawaii. We’ll discuss the Forum’s legislative proposals for this year’s session, which begins on January 20.

Energy Futures is broadcast “live” on Mondays 5-6 pm HST on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and is streamed on the Internet. An archive file of each week’s show is usually posted sometime on Tuesday at the Hawaii Public Radio website.