Colette…you are surely not talking about Hawaii…which depends on oil for 80-90% of its electrical generation.

This from the Hawaiian Electric Company website…

“Over 90 percent of all the energy used in Hawaii for electricity, surface and air transportation comes from imported fossil fuels, mostly oil but some coal.”

http://www.heco.com/portal/site/heco/menuitem.8e4610c1e23714340b4c0610c510b1ca/?vgnextoid=deeaf2b154da9010VgnVCM10000053011bacRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

Hawaiian Electric says no rate increase for solar lost revenue

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/blog/2012/02/hawaiian-electric-says-no-rate.html?s=print

The sad thing is that HECO wants to blame the solar energy industry on its need for a rate increase. The fact of the matter is that the reason Hawaii’s electricity costs so much is because we depend on imported oil for about 80-90% of our electricity. And to make matters worse…it’s imported foreign oil…as only 4% of the oil burned by HECO for electricity comes from the U.S. (Alaska). 96% of the oil comes from China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, etc. In otherwords, American money going to foreign countries.

Another inaccuracy is the claim that people with solar PV do not help pay the costs of maintaining the electrical grid. That is not true. No one with solar PV in Hawaii is 100% free of the grid. They all get HECO bills (albiet at a greatly reduced cost) and those bills include a minimum charge for system maintenance.

You may not believe in global warming…but the need to wean our country off oil has more to do with economic and national security than it does with sea levels.