Civil Beat’s recent article, “Hawaiʻi’s Pledge To Free Itself From Fossil Fuel Hits New Roadblocks,” highlighted the mounting challenges we face in achieving our clean energy goals.

It highlighted key barriers to developing renewable energy – permitting challenges, regulatory hurdles, funding gaps, utility struggles, federal pressure to water down mandates, and looming cost hike consequences of the China trade war. It cited the concerns about plans to use methane (LNG) as a short-term energy solution.

These challenges impact our ability to transition more promptly to a sustainable and resilient energy system that is not at the mercy of imports and one that can meet our growing need for electricity.

The article overlooked a critical component of our energy challenge — our transportation system.
Transportation accounts for over a quarter of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. It is the second-largest contributor after electricity production.

By Air, Land And Sea

Our ground, marine, and air transport systems depend almost entirely on imported oil. Thus, our clean energy transition can only happen when we transform our power generation and transportation systems.

(We must also focus on energy efficiency and demand reduction.)

Some progress is underway to decarbonize our transportation system, encouraged by a recognition of the benefits of clean transportation and concerted efforts by the state, our electric utilities, and community groups.

Various laws have been passed over the years designed to expand EV adoption, e.g., procurement rules prioritizing zero-low emission government fleet vehicles and sustained funding of the Commercial EV Charger Rebate program.

In 2024, Hawaiʻi reached a groundbreaking Navahine lawsuit settlement, committing to decarbonize its transportation sectors (ground, air, and marine) by 2045. The settlement included concrete action such as creating a decarbonization unit within the Department of Transportation, investing at least $40 million in Hawaiʻi’s public electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and creating a roadmap for emissions-free transportation.

Hawaii Electric has updated its “Electrification of Transportation Roadmap,” which lays out a comprehensive strategy to expedite our adoption of EVs through collaboration with the community and key stakeholders. The plan includes several initiatives to increase EV adoption, support the expansion of public charging infrastructure, and increase the use of renewable energy to power our transportation system.

The Hawaiʻi State Energy Office’s “Pathways to Decarbonization Report” reinforces the importance of transitioning our transportation system. This strategy recognizes the need for transportation reform, and emphasizes the importance of land use planning to reduce vehicle dependence, the development of public charging to accelerate EV adoption, and the promotion of alternative fuels.

We’re also witnessing tangible improvements in the public charger network. The Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation has deployed two NEVI Fast Charger hubs and continues to make progress on the others. Hawaiian Electric is in the process of upgrading its Fast Charger network.

Counties are deploying new Level 2 charging stations. Tesla just recently opened their latest Supercharger hub in ʻAiea.

These efforts show that Hawaiʻi has started to take meaningful steps.

We are also making progress. We are seeing increased adoption of EVs — the year-over-year growth of registered EVs has been roughly 25%, and there are nearly 37,000 registered EVs in the state as of March of this year. EVs represented a 17% market share in Q1 2025, according to the Hawaii Automotive Dealers Association.

Notably, Hawaii ranks among the top U.S. states in EV adoption. More must be done.

However, EVs are still less than 4% of the over 1 million vehicles in the state, and we burn about 460 million gallons of gasoline and diesel every year in these vehicles. This represents a significant amount of pollution and wasted energy (70%-80% of the energy in a gallon of gas is wasted as heat). It highlights our dependence on liquid fuel imports.

Accelerating the adoption of EVs will require a more concerted effort to address the known barriers: relatively higher upfront costs for vehicles and charging equipment, inadequate public charging infrastructure, and poor public awareness about the facts regarding EVs.

Let’s share the complete picture.

We offer a more complete and hopeful view of our energy transition by highlighting the progress and challenges in transforming both our transportation and energy systems. It shows that while the path is difficult, change is happening across sectors.

It reminds everyone that they, too, can be part of the solution, whether by choosing an EV, investing in energy efficiency, advocating for expanded charging infrastructure, supporting a diverse transportation system, or supporting policies that accelerate the shift away from oil.

We must recognize that breaking Hawaiʻi’s dependence on fossil fuels will require that we transform how we generate and use energy.