State lawmakers are asking for a detailed plan on how the state will transition to clean energy by 2045.
Senators were briefed on a budget request by the Department of Business, Economic, Development and Tourism on Thursday. Within the department is the State Energy Office.
Earlier this week, a Public Utilities commissioner said backup diesel generators would need to be purchased if the state didn’t meet its 2045 clean energy goal.
State Senator Glenn Wakai told State Energy Officer Scott Glenn the comment made him believe the state doesn’t have a strategy to meet its goal.
Senator Donovan Dela Cruz echoed Wakai’s concerns — and asked if there was a timeline to when fossil-fueled power plants will shut down.
"When you think between now and 2045, in your mind, what’s the strategy as we generate more renewable? What would be the timeline to slowly take one off at a time, because we could sunrise — the bill, you could say, that x power plant has to be shut down by 2030. Y power plant needs to be shut down by 2035," Dela Cruz said.
"I don’t get that sense that we have a plan that drawn out, we have the goal already of 2045. But I don’t see any meat to the bones to how we’re going to get there," he said.
Glenn told senators roughly 66% of the state’s energy needs is still produced through fossil fuels.
