"Pete C." wrote:
>
> Hawaii, for a seemingly "green" state, is incredibly wasteful of energy
> from what I've seen. Look at all the tourist flyers with all the lovely
> tiki torches burning away, each one of those things is burning something
> like 23,000 btu/hr worth of imported natural gas. Bad enough to be
> wasting 23,000 btu/hr on frivolous cosmetic stuff, but imported natural
> gas?!!! At least produce some bio-fuel from stuff grown on the dang
> island instead of bringing in LNG super tankers. Just one of those
> torches wastes enough energy with it's 8hr/day x 365 day operation to
> heat a house in the northern US during the winter months.

But the tourist industry provides employment for lots
of people in Hawaii, so providing "atmosphere" is not
wasted energy.

It's like when there's an occasional drought in
California, and the news shows pictures of golf
courses being watered -- that's not wasted water.
Those golf courses provide considerable employment
for the amount of water they consume. If you want
to save water in California, stop growing two crops,
cotton and rice, and the saved water will completely
eliminate the worst drought. There's cheap labor
all over the world that will be delighted to grow
all the cotton and rice America could ever use.
Heck, there's good cotton and rice being grown
in the southern U.S. -- no need to waste good
California real estate and water on those crops.