Honolulu energy use up after vow to conserve more
HONOLULU, HAWAII - Honolulu's plan to reduce power consumption by 10 percent by 2017 is off to a rough start.
Since city officials announced the plan in 2007, Honolulu's electricity use has climbed nearly 15 percent. It used 194.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity during the fiscal year ending in June — up from 169.3 million kilowatt hours in the 2007 fiscal year.
The city blames the jump on recent upgrades to its Sand Island Waste Water Treatment Plant that were mandated by federal and state agencies. But officials insist that overall energy consumption patterns are going in the right direction.
Meanwhile, Hawaiian Electric Co. says overall electricity use in Oahu, Maui and Hawaii counties during the first half of this year is down 5 percent.
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HAY RIVER - A Northwest Territories green energy advocate says there's an obvious way to expand demand for electricity in the territory's South Slave region without relying on new mining developments — direct it toward heating.
One of the reasons the N.W.T. has always had some of the highest electricity rates in Canada is that a small number of people have to shoulder the huge costs of hydro facilities and power plants.
But some observers point out that residents consume as much energy for heat as they do for conventional uses of electricity, such as lighting and powering appliances. Right now almost…
