*By Amanda Weston*
Hawaii has set ambitious energy goals in the face of global warming: the state wants to run completely on renewable energy by 2045.
Connie Lau, the president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries and chairman of Hawaiian Electric Company, said the shift makes economic and environmental sense.
"Hawaii for the longest time has imported a lot of fossil fuel, and so all of that is actually a big hole in our economy because we're sending all those dollars out of the state to buy imported fossil fuels," Lau said in an interview Monday on Cheddar.
The state has expanded its use of renewables from 8 percent to about 27 percent in the past decade. It's also second in the number of electric cars per capital, behind California.
Though President Trump has called for a resurgence of coal and aims to bring back industry jobs, that doesn't make much sense for Hawaii, which doesn't have direct access to fossil fuels. Lau said her company, which provides power to 95 percent of Hawaii, is committed to expanding renewables with a focus on wind and solar.
"We live in a part of the United States that has very different economics when it comes to the energy picture. So, not having coal or having natural gas or even hydro really changes the picture for us in Hawaii," Lau said. "When you're dealing with energy and you're dealing with natural resources, it's very location-specific. So you've got to really think about what you've got in your own community and what you can take advantage of."
Lau said Hawaii is on track to be 30 percent renewable by 2020, and the ultimate goal is within reach.
For full interview, [click here] (https://cms.cheddar.com/videos/VmlkZW8tMjIwMDA=).
Amid a backdrop of ongoing tariff uncertainty, more and more gamers are facing price hikes. Microsoft raised recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers around the world this week. Its Xbox Series S, for example, now starts at $379.99 in the U.S. — up $80 from the $299.99 price tag that debuted in 2020. And its more powerful Xbox Series X will be $599.99 going forward, a $100 jump from its previous $499.99 listing. The tech giant didn’t mention tariffs specifically, but cited wider “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” Beyond the U.S., Microsoft also laid out Xbox price adjustments for Europe, the U.K. and Australia. The company said all other countries would also receive updates locally.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday that the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the current fiscal quarter will be sourced from India, while iPads and other devices will come from Vietnam as the company works to avoid the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on its business. Apple’s earnings for the first three months of the year topped Wall Street’s expectations thanks to high demand for its iPhones, and the company said tariffs had a limited effect on the fiscal second quarter’s results. Cook added that for the current quarter, assuming things don’t change, Apple expects to see $900 million added to its costs as a result of the tariffs.
Visa is hoping to hand your credit card to an artificial intelligence “agent” that can find and buy clothes, groceries, airplane tickets and other items on your behalf.
Shares of Deliveroo, the food delivery service based in London, are hitting three-year highs on Monday after it received a $3.6 billion proposed takeover offer from DoorDash.
X, the social media platform owned by Trump adviser Elon Musk, is challenging the constitutionality of a Minnesota ban on using deepfakes to influence elections and harm candidates.
The State Bar of California has disclosed that some multiple-choice questions in a problem-plagued bar exam were developed with the aid of artificial intelligence.
