If you are given a public responsibility, you have to listen, weigh up all the issues, but ultimately you have to form a view of what you genuinely think is in the public interest... put the public interest above the vested interest. - Graeme Samuel

1. THE GEOPOLITICS OF ENERGY: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW?
Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, February 2021
<https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/OEF-126.pdf>
Predicting future developments and events is challenging even when one agrees on the past.
When the past is open to conflicting interpretations, prediction is yet more difficult. More
attention needs to be paid to how interpretations of the past and present shape our predictions of
the future, both regarding the geopolitics of the energy transition and beyond.
Throughout much of its history, the United States has imported more petroleum (which includes
crude oil, refined petroleum products, and other liquids) than it has exported. That status changed
in 2020. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) February 2021 Short-Term Energy
Outlook (STEO) estimates that 2020 marked the first year that the United States exported more
petroleum than it imported on an annual basis. However, largely because of declines in domestic
crude oil production and corresponding increases in crude oil imports, EIA expects the United
States to return to being a net petroleum importer on an annual basis in both 2021 and 2022.
EIA expects that increasing crude oil imports will drive the growth in net petroleum imports in
2021 and 2022 and more than offset changes in refined product net trade. EIA forecasts that net
imports of crude oil will increase from its 2020 average of 2.7 million barrels per day (b/d) to 3.7
million b/d in 2021 and 4.4 million b/d in 2022.
Source: EIA forecasts the U.S. will import more petroleum than it exports in 2021 and 2022, February 17, 2021
<https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=46776>
HAWAII 2007
State of Hawaii Energy Office <https://energy.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/HawaiiOilDependency.pdf>
Domestic levels of petroleum shipments to Hawaii (primarily from Alaska) have decreased from
44% in 1992 to 1% in 2006. Imports from Middle East sources increased from 0.4% in 1992 to
24.1% in 2006. The biggest increases during that time came from Vietnam, China, Brunei, and
Saudi Arabia. More than six million barrels of refined oil products were also shipped to Hawaii
in 2006. Of these imported refined products (primarily jet fuel), about 24% came from the
continental United States, with most of the remainder coming from Asian sources.

2. ___________________________________
HAWAII 2020
PAR HAWAII, the leading purchaser of crude oil in the Islands, says 34.4% of its imported
crude oil last year came from Russia and 19.9% from Libya. The company says that obtaining oil
from those two countries is the best environmental choice available to meet Hawai‘i’s oil needs.
Oil was imported from other countries as well, including Argentina and Sudan, while the main
domestic source was Alaska.
JEFF MIKULINA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE BLUE PLANET FOUNDATION,
says it is easy to talk about the benefits of shifting to renewable energy, but “we rarely talk
about the other side of the equation, which is where our fuel comes from, and the places
that it comes from are places that don't necessarily align with our values,” he says.
“We are fostering corrupt regimes there by sending our hard-earned dollars to those countries
when we have alternatives here.”
U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION (2021)

3. Source: Half of Foreign Oil for Hawai'i Comes from Russia and Libya
Hawai'i got half of its imported crude oil in 2020 from Russia and and Libya
which concerns at least one local environmental organization
By Emily Burr, Hawaii Business Magazine, June 22, 2021
<https://www.hawaiibusiness.com/half-of-foreign-oil-for-hawaii-comes-from-russia-and-libya/>
[Emphasis Supplied]
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SERVING THE “PUBLIC INTEREST”
TRADITIONAL VS EXPANSIVE UTILITY REGULATION
Prepared for the National Regulatory Research Institute
By Eric Filipink, Policy Analyst, Harrison Institute for Public Law, Georgetown University Law Center
December 30, 2009
<https://pubs.naruc.org/pub/FA864C03-DC7D-B239-9E29-4D68D1807BE4>
Statutes command utility regulators to protect the “public interest,” which is indefinite and
constantly changing. Originally, it meant restraining the monopoly power of utility companies.
Regulators focused their activities on setting rates and establishing standards of service. Today,
environmental and economic needs expand the public interest.
Regulators like the flexibility of public interest regulation. It enables them to respond to changing
conditions such as climate change, rising energy costs, new technologies, diversity in products
and providers, and new business models.
Yet when regulators expand public interest regulation, it unsettles utilities. They are prone to
challenge the boundaries of regulators' authority in court or to limit it through legislation.
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STATE OF HAWAII PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
<https://puc.hawaii.gov/about/goals-objectives/>
VISION
The PUC delivers transparent, accessible, and timely regulatory oversight, while working
collaboratively with customers, stakeholders, and the general public.
MISSION
To serve the public, by ensuring essential utility services are delivered to consumers in a safe,
reliable, economical, and environmentally sound manner.
HOW THE PUC FULFILLS ITS MISSION
This mission is achieved through responsible and informed oversight of public utilities and a
focus on economic, operational, environmental, and societal concerns associated with balanced
regulation and future impacts of present-day decisions.
CORE VALUES
Service • Professional Excellence • Transparency & Accountability • Collaboration & Teamwork