House Representative and Hemp Hustler Cynthia Thielen (R-Hawaii) — famous for sowing the first industrial hemp seeds planted in U.S. soil since 1957 (see photo) — has now co-sponsored a House resolution calling for research into technology that can convert wave action into electricity, Wired News reports. Thielen says the first use of this technology in the U.S. will be at a Marine base in Oahu — the most populous island in the Hawaiian chain, and Thielen’s home district (a power station on the Island of Islay, off Scottland’s west coast, already runs the EU-funded Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer (LIMPET), which produces 500 kilowatts of energy, enough for 400 homes).

Thielen has worked hard to establish herself in her district as a champion of alternative energy, and that applies also to her advocacy of industrial-hemp cultivation, about which she explains:

‘You have a crop that replaces fiberglass and so many other products that require petroleum fuels to produce,’ Thielen said. “Industrial hemp is an ideal replacement crop. It can produce easily 80 percent of the fiberglass products on the market, and it is fire retardant, it is lighter weight and it is stronger, and it never goes into a landfill.

‘This is industrial hemp, which is a different variety than your pot stuff [d’oh!]. Industrial hemp we’re looking at in Hawaii as a replacement for sugar. The sugar plantations have gone belly up, the agricultural land is vacant and we’re looking at industrial hemp for a variety reasons. It can be processed locally. It can be turned into building materials.’

Now, as different technologies are being developed to tap the motion of the oceans, Thielen wants to ride the wave, and she wants to take Oahu along for the ride, Brah’:

‘We are ideally located for wave surges […] Ultimately, this technology could power 80 to 90 percent of the island. But that’s a long way off. We have a monopoly utility, Hawaiian Electric, and they don’t take well to any other energy source. They only want to use fossil fuel. That’s why the military base works, because they can do what makes sense.’

Wave technology has its detractors, though. Development costs are high, and no one wants a white elephant on their hands. But, as Wired notes

the search for alternate energy sources has gained added impetus with the war on terrorism potentially spreading to oil-producing heavyweights like Iraq, and wave energy has suddenly moved from near-obscurity to interesting-new-idea status.

Just last week, the U.S. Senate introduced an energy bill including provisions for developing ocean energy, along with more established renewable-energy sources. Whether the provision makes the cut when the final form of the bill is hammered out and passed, it’s clear ocean energy has shown up on the official Washington radar.

Of course, just showing up on the radar doesn’t mean a whole helluva lot… This sounds like some expensive pork for Hawaii to throw on its spit (umm, with pineapple rings and brown sugar glaze!), but if it can be made to work, I suppose it won’t kill anybody…

(via Rich Caccavale)

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