 Welcome back to think tech Hawaii. I'm your host on likeable science Ethan Allen And thank you for joining us this lowly Friday afternoon today on likeable science We have a very special guest Senator Glenn Wokai welcome Glenn. Thank you. Thank you for being here. You're such a likeable host Likeable science. Well, we try to keep it late and happy here And it's guys like you we're helping make science and technology really happen and be a bigger part of all of our lives every It's the future it is it is indeed and that's that's what we're here to talk about right is some some of your ideas and some of the ideas that are brewing around the legislature about How to bring more technology to Hawaii how to develop our own technology how to and where to do this and you have a Thing that you call your for a economic plan, right? Yes aerospace Aquaculture alternative energy in a low-cost stadium, right? Yes And would you like me to talk about it? Yeah, if you don't mind I want to just take a one-step back about Just economically we built our Our two biggest economic engines Of the past are our plantation, right? That's what brought many of our families here and then now it's tourism And I just don't think that that's going to be sustainable that we need to pivot from a society that uses this Muscle to a society that uses this muscle because this has limited capability This has infinite opportunities and it's with that mindset that we've pivoted towards the triple a economic plan, but more generally for the idea of an 8080 plan, which is to create 80,000 new tech Innovation type jobs with a minimum salary of $80,000 Because what we have now is we have a lot of Menial jobs and that's why we see so many of our neighbors who have one two three jobs Trying to pay their rents because you're cab cabling together $25,000 a year jobs to pay your rent wouldn't it be better if we provided the Pathway for meaningful jobs that pay North of $80,000. So again, that's that's the effort. We're trying to get to so how do you how do we get there? I'm a believer that We have to change the dynamics and the thought process for our neighbors who look at the price of Paradise right and the price of paradise is our kind of resignation that Hawaii is junk Hawaii is expensive Shipping energy costs all of these things make us very bad of a terrible place for us to do business And I want to shift that to The profits in in paradise not the price of paradise, but the profits here and when we do that that's a mind shift of Looking at our isolation as no longer a judgment But how in the world can we be world leaders in certain areas? So that's where the four a's come in the first a being aquaculture It baffles me that in Hawaii 70% of the fish we consume is imported All right, that is a ridiculous proposition Particularly since Hawaiians traditionally far on fish they were doing agricultural centuries ago on quite an extensive scale Fish far we're plentiful fishing and then the the ocean was was our the bed in basket for Hawaii. I'm totally and Going back to the idea of us importing fish That would be similar to somehow folks in Nebraska importing cows I I highly doubt that that would be a model that they want to embrace But we continue to ignore The plentiful resources that the ocean provides us and I'm a big fan of agriculture Right agriculture was actually the first economic engine for for this state, but agriculture has its inherent conflicts You need land you need water. We need more housing. We need more retail We need more business development and if you have a limited terrestrial plane to play on then you can have all of these Conflicts and we fail to look just offshore at the infinite possibilities of the ocean for food sustainability and economic development Exactly. It's a sort of it's a new frontier out there to do aquaculture. It's it's tomorrow's agriculture, right? True. It's the old frontier that we've failed to kind of acknowledge and take advantage of so yes it's it's new because we're reinventing the old and Getting back to the sustainability portion of it. I mean you can bring a growth seaweed or go right can become our vegetable As well as the meat side of things the crustaceans the mussels the fish that we could be Cultivating here. We don't pay enough attention to aquaculture in the state Absolutely, and there are thousands and thousands of jobs in that in that area Learning about the ocean science learning how to farm this the seaweed efficiently What are the what are the characteristics? What kinds of water flow do you need? How do you best sort of house it as it were? You're absolutely right And it's also taking the the Hawaiian model the fish pond and bringing in 21st century ideas in creating these fish pens These global position fish pens in which we have the fish swimming around right? It's no longer a pig pen on a on the land It's a it's a pen global position pen out in the ocean that will keep our kimpachi in in an area And so we can feed them and utilizing the ocean as a real Opportunity and playground for us. Absolutely absolutely all the more reason to be sure We know a lot about the ocean keep our ocean water is in good shape so we can exploit that now Yep, exactly and the other aid would be alternative energy and anybody who's lived in Hawaii more than day knows the Opportunities here right the wind the rain not the rain the wind maybe rain one day the wind the Sun ocean movements Ocean thermal dynamics all sorts of opportunities here And we have the highest cost of electricity in the nation at 33 35 cents a kilowatt hour And in the rest of the nation it's about 12 or so cents We can't compete Economically so we need to you figure out how we can get Hawaii down to a level playing field Where our innovative companies are paying the same electricity bill as their counterparts on on the mainland's alternative energy is something We need to continue to to really Think forward on absolutely and considering solar is basically free for the taking once you invest in the infrastructure and you're just using the sunlight and Actually just a few weeks ago. I had a One of the founders of the whole ocean thermal energy conversion on here and that was that's an amazing system that he's worked out And I guess they're getting ready to do a big pilot project on a substantial scale up and down in Guajalan now And no reason we shouldn't be doing that here right and think about also although Otec and Nelha on the big island was built for Ocean thermal energy conversion Otec There's all kinds of collateral benefits that have popped up at Nelha, right because if you For for your viewers right you bring the water up at 40 degrees You mix it with the surface water at 70 degrees that delta difference in temperature of 30 degrees helps create steam Which helps create energy? But we also found that you bring water up at 40 degrees from the bottom of the ocean Then you kind of fake out the fish right so now we're growing abalone. We can grow main lobster. We can grow cold environment Stations and muscles that we couldn't be because our Tropical environments are so warm, but we're pulling water from that depth and it fakes out the whatever with livestock We're trying to grow and so we've had this collateral benefit of the beginnings of aquaculture industry there I was hearing recently some I guess set up a test plot where they're running the cold piped water through the land and now growing the temperate fruit trees Right, right, and we're faking out the past like we're the fake capital of the world I mean pretty soon we can pipe bring it up and pretend we're Iceland and make eagles or something out of the cold water Yeah, one of the beautiful things that the Otec ends up producing fresh water as a throw-by product of the whole thing Well, yeah, that's actually you're absolutely right our number one export product is bottled Reverse osmosis seawater. It's not corn or coffee. It's not macadamia nuts It's not pineapple. Our number one export is bottled water You're absolutely right and the stink gets one penny off of each of those bottles of water that are mainly the Japanese market is a consumer of water Yes, so you're right. So we faked out the vegetables We got economic development through bottled water and we're growing cold weather Crestations and muscles that we've never had the opportunity to have before wonderful. Wonderful. So that's that's super We did we go through all of the a's the other a was Aerospace, oh great aerospace another going back to using our location as an advantage and not a disadvantage Hawaii should be ground zero for aerospace and even Trump today and his his group that's looking at his NASA group has said that they want to position America to get to back to the moon and we're gonna colonize the moon Which is a huge leap right one thing to get this one thing another thing to live there We're gonna colonize the moon Hawaii should be at the forefront of how are we going to prepare our astronauts for that? Huge undertaking right the moon Mars like terrain on the big island is a perfect spot Absolutely right next to that area perhaps in Pahaka, Loa They're the best set of telescopes on on the on the planet there and you have even low up in in Hilo and You have the opportunity for space Satellite small satellite launches off of the big island Right because Hawaii's is most southern most State in America, so we're the closest to the equator and for you science folks are watching right you you're spinning faster at the equator Than here at the North Pole and therefore it takes less energy to jettison a satellite into orbit And so Hawaii is in a unique position in America to be the launch spot for for the planet And here's kind of an interesting tidbit You know when you and I were growing up the space agency was NASA and government also Russia and Japan the government were the leaders of space expenses and exploration the number one Entity that sends rockets into space today is direct TV the private sector has taken over the world of space So we can get direct TV and their competitors to go launch satellites off of the big island more power for us We have another economic engine that goes into the aerospace arena, and I know the idea of space launches off of the big island Brings up bad memories for some people particularly in Puna, but we're not talking about your grandfather's rockets anymore Right Apollo I mean that some seven eight story type rocket. We're talking about small space launches So it's not going to be quite as impactful as what we saw in Cape Canaveral in the 1960s and 70s So that is another area of immense opportunity Right again another asset that we have rather than a liability basically right and again Where is our location and how is that to our advantage and how can we be the global leader in that area? Perfect the last a is more provincial It's Aloha Stadium and that is an area of hundred acres Which to me is a underutilized piece of property home to six UH football games a smattering of foot high school football games And a swap me we can do far better than that like 80% of the time It's doing nothing in terms of bringing in revenue Why don't we go down the road of creating Aloha Stadium in that area as a destination? Similar if you're familiar with LA live where there's the Staples Center, and then there's a hot theaters, there's ice rink. There's there's retail There's hotel. I mean, why can't we recreate something like that where we've created a dynamic destination? Especially if the rail stop is going there We don't want people to stop there for six UH games and pick up your your ukulele made in China from a swat me vendor There we want you to go there eat get entertained there Maybe have work there and maybe even live in that area So if we're going to make rail a viable part of Hawaii's future, then I think part of it is to create you know density and smart growth around the rail stations and and of all of the spots that we have that Aloha Stadium area is the biggest piece of state land that we can utilize to really make that a dynamic stop Excellent and we're going to dig into these issues in greater depth when we come back right now We're gonna have to take a short break. I'm here with Senator Glenn Wakai, and I'm your host Ethan Allen here on likable science I've got the Beagle sisters here with a healthy tip We encourage you to enjoy the food you eat this holiday season and keep it local and healthy Yeah, eat the rainbow in your rainbow And if you need any produce come to the red barn on the North Shore Aloha, this is Kaley Akina with the weekly a Hana Coco Let's work together program on the think Takawaii broadcast network Mondays at 2 o'clock PM Movers and shakers and great ideas. Join us. We'll see you then Aloha Aloha, my name is Justine Espiritu, and I am the co-host of Hawaii farmers series this is my co-host Matthew Johnson and We are live with you every Thursday at 4 p.m. At think tech Hawaii dot-com and our show focuses on Hawaii's local food Community we feature not only the farmers that are producing our food but we also feature the supporters and other folks involved in the community that are Trying to promote local agriculture And you're back here on likable science I'm your host Ethan Allen with me today and think tech to do is a senator Glenn Wakai happy to be here and great Have you here? We've been talking about about the four economic a's aerospace aquaculture Alternative energy and Aloha Stadium, and we went over briefly at the start how these each could be Followed as an asset another a here to Hawaii rather than a than a liability and why is it that Hawaii is Ranked essentially the bottom of the states for sort of business friendliness. Well, everyone agrees we have an amazing quality of life here, right? You know what? It's so interesting is you're absolutely right You look at the CNBC reports and year after year we either 49th or rock bottom at number 50 but you look at those same Entities that create those poles and Hawaii is a number one quality of life Spot in America and so if you if we understand that people want to live here But they're not making enough money But they're willing to sacrifice this to be here if we were to a be able to we always want to be number one We always want to be the best place in America to live But if we can ratchet us up a few spots to meh, we would never be number one But if we could be in the 20s or maybe low 30s, we've dramatically changed the quality of life for our people here and So to get to that as we started off at the outset We really got to help lower the cost of living housing Reduce taxation some of the impediments The government has placed in front of people to make a profit and at the same time raise the Salaries and the quality of life for people here then all of a sudden we're in a very very sweet spot All right, and we've got a lot of the stuff sort of in place, right? I mean we have a great university sitting here that does amazing world-class research We have wonderful sort of informal learning centers the Bishop Museum Wikiki Aquarium those those sorts of things again can support the kinds of development that we want to Foster and yes, then we can as you sort of put it You wean ourselves off the tourism industry and begin to build a much more sustainable economically sustainable homes or a homegrown Technology-based economy, right and you know to but you might want to ask how are we going to grow? How do we improve the business environment and just to like kind of set the stage of? How little regard government gives to business development our state budget is 14 billion would have be 14 billion dollars The largest chunk of that is education which takes about 22.2 billion dollars of that that budget and economic development or DBed department of business economic development in tourism gets a budget of a hundred and fifty million dollars, so they have a minuscule amount of Investment into growing the business environment, but we expect the business environment to pay for everything else that we need The roads the prisons the schools those are all losses for the state, right? There's no revenue opportunities in that arena We need to have the business coming to give us the taxes necessary to provide government services But you can see the way we budget our state resources there's not enough likeable like mines in in the Senate and the House to devote more of the state budget to economic development and I'm not a fan of digging deeper into people's pockets. I'd rather have the state create more pockets, but we We have this weird situation where if there's a dime left on the table That's going to go to human services or some other good government service I'm a fan of if there's a dime left on the table. Let's go put it into economic development initiatives and grow more pockets Yeah, I mean it's very tricky business right because we can't shortchange our education system You want to produce great great educational programs so the Hawaii's kids grow up learning learning learning the learners loving learning and Better yet being able to come back here for the economic opportunities instead of leaving as many of them unfortunately do they leave for better Jobs better positions elsewhere with a farm system for innovation in other states. We have a net Negative exodus of ours best in and brightest now I was talking to a venture capitalist just the other day about just Hawaii's kind of schizophrenia in this area because you know We create some of the smartest and brightest people right on many yards the Obama's of the world The cases of the world But they all have to make their millions Elsewhere, but it shows you the talent pool that we have here And so if we know that we have smart talented innovative ambitious creative people here We've got to create the mechanism for them to stay here I was told like in North Dakota and I'm not meaning to bash people who might be from North Dakota But you know you have a North Dakota Montana up there the quality of life is is different But they don't they're not creating the innovators of the future So they can't they don't have step one to get to step ten of having a vibrant innovative Economy Hawaii where it's probably step three, but we're we're not cashing in on the value-added part We're we're educating smart people to high school and then they're bailing and some other state benefits from that talent pool That has been gone here. So we really have to make a concerted effort to Build up the opportunities for them here, right and again It sort of goes hand-in-hand with the energy costs that you point I are just just Prohibitive for businesses and there's no reason for it. I mean there really isn't a reason for there's no reason we are bringing diesel fuel in from Around the world basically and burning it here when we have perfectly We are the best position state basically for solar energy in many many respects right and the technologies for solar are here With a little bit of extra incentive and investment It's likely we could we could shift to a truly a solar-based economy that's of course a goal of some groups here in Hawaii and You know suddenly our energy costs go way down and that's more money in everyone else's pocket, right? Right and we got to figure out the battery storage part as well Right because you know we all know that solar provides us energy half the day But we got to be able to store it somehow at night, but yeah You pump water up and let it run down night and generate the flow of the water You know or whatever yes battery storage is there are lots of different interesting options and again That's a real interesting frontiers here. I think that we have to be willing to explore and be willing to sort of say Let's go and let's let's put some serious time serious money serious minds into into looking at this see if it'll work See if we can make this scale up. Yep, you know and we have this organization called the Hawaii Technology Development Corporation Which is kind of leading that the pathway on in that area and they are focusing on three areas that are Necessary to grow this area this this up part of our economy and that's up through infrastructure Through workforce development and through financing. We need all three Legs of that stool to be stood up if I could briefly briefly talk about each leg Infrastructure that's the broadband capacity right we we got to join the rest of the world in faster and cheaper broadband here And also the infrastructure of incubating ideas. It's one thing to work out of a garage It's another if you could take that idea from the garage and be given Mentorship and grant opportunities to help grow that idea into a sustainable business So we have the infrastructure at the Manoa Innovation Center We have a Maui Innovation Center that does the same thing of the other leg of the stool is a workforce development And that's where we're working with the University of Hawaii the colleges even the Department of Education to have that Not just have STEM education but have a really comprehensive pathway for a child to explore his Creativity in math and sciences and work that through the education system as well as through the college post-secondary education system and create a clear pathway to develop the workforce that we need and then the final leg of The stool is the finance part because we could have the best and brightest and the best ideas but unless there's money to Research it and ultimately test it before it goes commercial then we Have great ideas that are not monetizable So that finance part the venture capital in the investment state does a little bit But we've learned that we need to bring in private money to match that and all of a sudden We have these three stools that we're slowly getting up to speed on and we'll have the beginnings of Creating a really innovative economy of the future. Yes, and it's sort of a question. It's sort of almost a race here, right? I mean we can't afford to just be sort of slowly step by step developing these We really need to be moving ahead at a faster clip right the world is moving on very quickly The technologies are changing all the time but technologies in sort of every sphere here that we've been talking about and we can't Prepare our students for yesterday's jobs We have to really give them an education skill and think for tomorrow What are the skills that our businesses will need tomorrow, right and we in Hawaii need to be more forward thinking and What makes Hawaii special is our you know our past our culture and and I'm not saying that we shouldn't hold on to that But at the same token we need to be more progressive in the way we look at things I mean the fact that one of the biggest legislative Shuggles we're gonna have this year is figuring out how does Airbnb fit into our tourism landscape, right? We should be embracing that rather than trying to figure out how to keep them out and how to pin them down and penalize them We should just say that they're part of our future and let's embrace it even with uber. That's another area where Why should we stop uber from competing with the taxi cab drivers? We got have the taxi cab drivers up their game create their own apps and compete with uber But it's it's hard right when you're the the vested interest that if I'm running a taxi company I don't want Apps to destroy my business, but that's the way of the future So you either gonna embrace it or you're gonna get left behind and Hawaii we kind of struggle sometimes in embracing the new world order and We need to yeah, I mean you you don't see many buggy whip manufacturers anymore, right? No, you know some industries is go by the wayside and some models have to be Periodically refreshed replaced brand new things going in just disrupt the technology disrupt the whole status quo And yes, it's very tough We're talking about artificial intelligence and it's it's potentially impacts and it is gonna disrupt things And it always sort of does and how do you take care of the people who sort of get left behind when? Their jobs get automated away from them basically and again the state has to take some responsibility to invest in their training And their retraining to new careers. Yeah, so it's it's many challenges here Well, this has been a wonderful been a very rich discussion. I've enjoyed talking with you so much Thank you. We have we've covered. I think some good ground and it's nice to see Great hopeful people like yourself Working so hard for for our good was great that people are interested in technology because that's going to be the future The fact that you have a show like this that spreads the good word about opportunities Is a sign that Hawaii's is slowly but surely embracing the idea of technology for its future. Excellent Well, I thank you so much. Thanks for having me Aloha. Hope to join us next week Back here on likeable science