Climate Resilience and Energy in Hawaii

ENERGY 13SC

This course will explore the practical, social, technical, and political challenges surrounding climate resilience, water conservation and energy in Hawaii. Hawaii is at the forefront of conservation, climate action, and the clean energy transition. The state has adopted an aspirational goal for 100% carbon-free electricity in 2045. In addition, Hawaii has passed legislation that aspires to 100% fossil-free transportation by 2040 and has similar goals to promote sustainable communities and ensure a just climate transition. Yet at the same time, Hawaii is uniquely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as rising temperatures, sea level rise, more frequent and intense storms, increased coastal erosion, wildfires, and biodiversity loss.

We will explore practical, social, technical, and political issues surrounding climate adaptation, water conservation and energy production. All of these issues will be considered in the technical, societal, cultural, natural resource, and political milieu which is the unique nature of Hawaii. We will spend approximately the first week on campus learning about climate, energy, water and conservation, the climate and energy context in Hawaii, and how Hawaii compares with other Western states. We will then travel to various field sites in Hawaii.

We will meet with relevant policy experts and public officials from governmental agencies, utilities, universities, and public interest groups. The course will conclude with presentations by the students.

Important Logistics

Travel to, from and within Hawaii will be provided (except incidentals) and is made possible by the Bill Lane Center for the American West and Sophomore College. It is anticipated that travel will include at least two islands as the circumstances for each individual island tend to be different from one another.

Application Alert!

This course may use interviews as part of the application process—keep a close eye on your email after the deadline passes.

Field Trips and Guest Speakers

Students will travel to Hawaii during this course. The itinerary for 2025 is under development, but earlier versions of this class in 2019 and 2022 included meeting with Native Hawaiian naturalists, representatives from the Hawaii government, executives from Hawaii Energy, and tours to sites such as:

Wave energy turbine device
Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) plant
Wind Farm
Bio-diesel generator
Solar Desalination Demonstration Project
Geothermal

What Happens After SoCo?

This course is part of the rotating series of SoCo courses sponsored by the Bill Lane Center. Alumni of previous Bill Lane Center classes have gone on to do summer internships through the Bill Lane Center, as well as:

Produced a podcast about Native American communities in the pandemic
Gained faculty mentors and experience in research:
Wrote thesis on denim in the western imagination that led to a job with Levi Strauss
Majored in civil engineering and minored in urban history

Meet the Instructor

Bruce Cain

Charles Louis Ducommun Professor in Humanities and Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and at the Precourt Institute for Energy

Bruce E. Cain is a professor of Political Science at Stanford University and Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West. He received a B.A. from Bowdoin College, a B.Phil. from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Professor Cain was Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley from 1990 to 2007 and Executive Director of the UC Washington Center from 2005 to 2012. He has won awards for his research (Richard F. Fenno Prize, 1988), teaching (Caltech 1988 and UC Berkeley 2003), and public service (Zale Award for Outstanding Achievement in Policy Research and Public Service, 2000). His areas of expertise include political regulation, applied democratic theory, representation, and state politics.