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Just as incentives spurred the proliferation of solar panels on Hawaii rooftops, lawmakers hope to achieve a similar result with the next evolution in clean energy — the widespread use of solar-power batteries providing electricity for the home.
Two measures in the Legislature would use tax credits or rebates to encourage residents to buy batteries linked to their rooftop solar systems. The measures, House Bill 2291 and Senate Bill 2738, have their critics, and the technology is still pretty expensive. But for emerging technologies, such issues come with the territory.
Bees get a break from Ortho’s neonics
The buzz from garden-care giant Ortho is that it’s going to stop using by 2021 a class of chemicals — neonicotinoids — that have been suspected of contributing to the decline of bee populations nationwide, including possibly in Hawaii.
That’s great news for backyard farmers and others who have worried that using insect-control concoctions that contain the neonics could be why they’ve been seeing fewer bees in recent years performing the critical task of cross-pollinating their food crops, trees and flowers.
Manufacturers of the neonics have said that studies have exaggerated the risks and downplayed the benefits, but Ortho obviously thinks it’s a wise move commercially to err on the side of the bees.
