with everybody, with family. your is doing responsibility, as a daughter of service members and a servicemember myself, a former servicemember, i felt it was my responsibility under the constitution to go ahead and do my duty and serve my country. >> i feel lucky to have the freedom to pursue your happiness and really, this is the land of opportunity for me. to be able to be whatever i want to be. in the country i come from, it would not be possible. year, we'rehis asking middle school and high school students to produce a five to six minute documentary asking -- answering the question what it means to be american. there is a grand prize of

$5,000. so what does it mean to be american? is january 20. for more information, go to our website. >> over the last year, the c-span us has traveled to 50 states. you have probably seen hawaii weekend. we want to continue this year on washington journal. jeff is the executive director of blue planet foundation and he joins us via skype. let's begin with the foundation and what it represents. jeff: we just turned 10 years old this year. our focus is narrow on clearing the path on clean energy. we see hawaii as the perfect test bed for new policies and programs to help solve our crime

-- our climate problem. >> i'm going to ask a basic question to try to explain to our audience how the concept works. first, what is renewable energy? >> that is the good news story here. we have an abundance of renewable energy from solar to wave energy. wind power, geothermal, pretty much you name it. is that that can be renewed. something that is replenished on a daily basis. atmosphere. we have an abundance of renewable energy resources in hawaii. highest electricity prices and gasoline prices in the nation. it makes good sense here in hawaii. it is increasingly making good

sense across the country. that is what is exciting about this transition. host: with wave energy or wind energy, i am curious how you store that were captured that and use it -- or capture that and use it. guest: you just put your finger on the biggest challenge we face. we get wind when the wind blows, solar when the sunshine's. there are two things we need to do. one is to shift our loads around so it better coincides to when we have the renewable energy. the second thing is storage. there have been a lot of exciting things on that front. folks know that batteries in their phones and batteries in electric vehicles, things that can store that energy for later use in the evening when the sun goes down or overnight. even seasonal storage for periods of time when we do not have solar or wind for a number of days. the cost is dropping

tremendously. it is exciting to see the real growth. in hawaii one solar systems go in, they are typically installed with a battery or storage of some sort. host: your website says you want to be 100% clean energy by 2045. how do you get there? caller: that is a $30 million question. we were the first state in the nation to pass a law to require that the utility achieved letter percent renewable energy by a set date. ours is 2045. we can no longer claim we are the only state in the nation. last month, california signed similar legislation. it happens to be the same date, 2045. the race is on. we are working with other states to have them emulate the goal. the question of how we get there, there are a lot of

scenarios for how we can achieve that. what is exciting is when we first proposed the bill, people thought it was crazy. the utility said it was impossible. it moved from impossible to improbable. today, it is inevitable. the latest utility plan shows they can achieve 100% five years ahead of schedule at a cost billions below business as usual. it is going to be a mix of solar, wind, but we are staying open. we do not know what better technology can emerge to accelerate the timeline. host: on the east coast, a gallon of gas is on average anywhere between two dollars and -- how much is it in hawaii? caller: it is right around the four dollar mark. i am not totally familiar with what the gas price is driving a biodiesel vehicle and electric

vehicles that are not tied to the cost. host: are you seeing more of the vehicles that you are driving across the state? caller: we are. we are second in the nation for per capita a lecture vehicle ownership. and a mix of other vehicles as well. biodiesel for one that are manufactured locally. increasingly growing to produce the fuel. things such as mac and emea nuts -- macadamia nuts. host: because of where hawaii is positioned, is it unique in terms of what you can do with wind energy or can other states learn from the island state? caller: we think we are the perfect testbed. we have this abundance of every renewable energy source. the challenge here is more difficult. states have what you might call a buffering capacity where they

can share electricity with neighboring states. hawaii does not have that luxury. we have independent grids. each have to supply -- balance the supply independently. make sure we can keep the lights on by using renewable energy. that is where the lessons can be learned on how to do that instantaneously. across the country, there is different sources. you have hydroelectric and some places. a lot of wind across the midwest. solar across the southwest. it is those states tapping into the best resources. host: jeff m is joining us fromikulin honolulua -- jeff mik ulina is joining us from honolulu. what are they doing right? caller: some of the states are

just blessed with great natural resources. in the northwest, you have a lot of hydroelectric from the large rivers. some of the other states have excellent wind resource. it is tapping into those indigenous resources that are renewable. we like to point to iceland. they were renewable in the 1970's. they were able to get off carbon-based fuels decades ago because they relied on local power. state-by-state is going to be unique. host: california wants to follow the lead of hawaii and be dependent on clean power by 2045. how does it -- how does a state like california do that? caller: that is a great question. they are going to muddle through and figure it out. there has been some good modeling done by experts at berkeley and other places

looking at what the various scenarios could be. california will have no problem achieving 100% renewable clean energy. the two questions are, what does the cost look like? and the second important question is, how do we make sure we go together on this journey to 100% where no one gets left behind? it is important that as we take the steps towards clean energy that everyone can benefit from renewables. host: as he said, this initiative began in 2008. it includes a collaboration between the state and the department of energy to reduce hawaii's use of imported fossil fuels. the goal by the year 2045 to be one of your percent clean energy. explain the public and private partnership and what each stakeholder plays in this. caller: in the early years of

initiative, we have a republican governor back that. it was great to see a real bipartisan effort to move hawaii off of fossil fuel. that was in concert with president george bush. perhaps a different error -- a different era back then when there was a real collaboration between the two parties. there's been another interesting party in hawaii, that is the military. moving off of fossil fuels is key for the military for a variety of reasons. they brought a lot of great research. when the military says they want to do something, they move pretty quick. that is been beneficial -- that has been beneficial. companies are looking at hawaii as a place to invest. they see it as a good testbed. we have also benefited from that. the most important piece is the community. in hawaii, folks have embraced

this. they understand that renewable energy is the future. we have the most solar per capita. some 80,000 rooftops in hawaii that are essentially power plants. these are families that are powering their lifestyles through solar energy. it really changed the thinking of renewable energy from this abstract concept to something that keeps the lights on. host: we should point out the website is blue planet foundation.org. he is joining us from honolulu. how does somebody from the university of illinois and up in hawaii -- bnd up in a white? -- bnd up in hawaii? caller: we also much potential of hawaii being that leader on energy and environmental issues. we found the foundation 10 years

ago with the same theory of change that we can be a model for the globe. host: i want to go back to the economic model. is clean energy comparable to fuel? is that a higher cost to the consumer? caller: hawaii is on the cutting edge of the stuff or really a vanguard. our current electricity prices are between $.25 and $.30 and higher on the big island. we rely on imported fossil fuel. mostly oil. oil is up and down. it has always been up and down, but the projects going in today for solar. solar at night that is being stored in batteries is less than $.10. when you compare that to what we are paying for fossil fuel, it is a no-brainer. it is cheaper to put in solar plus storage than to invest in any new fossil fuel power plant.

what is exciting is when you couple that with clean transportation, it gets even cheaper. we have electric vehicles that can so that the solar. we have a sustainable system that is cheaper and more sustainable. host: when trying to achieve the goal, what is the biggest challenge? caller: this is going to sound like dodging the question, but it is our imagination. divisions -- deficiency of imagination is the biggest challenge we face. when we propose this, we were left out of the room. the governor of the time called me harry potter. we persisted. we built momentum. we built the campaign around it. now, it is inevitable. people accept it and embrace it. we cannot lose the imagination. we face the most daunting challenge that we have ever had with civilization and climate

change. now is not the time to think small. zero fossil fuel is the right goal for hawaii. it is the right goal across the nation and across the globe -- the globe. host: >> joining us the a skype from honolulu. thank you for being part was acer: on saturday, or look at how hawaii is dealing with the challenge of homelessness and affordable housing. this is 15 minutes. >> we will turn now to the issue of affordable housing. we will turn to hawaii office of planning director leo asuncion calling on skype to talk about the issue. good morning. what do you define as affordable housing in the united states?