There are two articles and one opinion piece in the ”’Honolulu Star-Bulletin”’ on Monday Jan. 23, 2006, about renewable energy. As would be expected these pieces reflect an unflinching environmentalist view without any consideration of any alternative viewpoints or facts.
The first article is about ethanol and how no refineries have been built in the islands to refine ethanol, which was a major justification for passing the law in the first place. It was supposed to support the agricultural industry by providing a market for sugar cane products. The idea was that molasses from cane would then be converted to ethanol.
This process is more difficult than it appears and even on the mainland all the kinks have not been worked out of the process. Currently the only crop that actually produces enough starch to be economically worth the effort is corn. And this would not be the case without the huge federal subsidies to support the ethanol industry. Archer Daniels Midland