As the home to the U.S. military’s headquarters for Indo-Pacific operations, Hawai’i’s pivotal role as the United States’ fulcrum in the Pacific is unquestionable. However, Hawai’i’s local energy infrastructure issues have major implications for the security of U.S. forces in the Pacific and may pose a gaping vulnerability to trans-Pacific military logistics.
Furthermore, the effort to stabilize Hawai’i’s electricity grid and production, and ensure adequate power for the islands’ military bases, directly intersects with the development of renewable energy solutions.
Underscoring the salience of this issue, on January 30, a powerful storm bore down on the islands. High winds and heavy rains pose numerous risks, including the downing of power lines. Across the islands, including O’ahu, Hawai’i and Maui, significant power outages affecting thousands were reported though January 31.
Hawai’ian Electric Company
Hawai’i’s power infrastructure and situation is unique compared to most other U.S. states: each of Hawai’i’s islands have independent, insular power networks, though are all primarily operated by one company, Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO). Providing approximately 95 percent of the state’s electricity, HECO is not only a regional monopoly, but a utility company that maintains an important relationship with U.S. Armed Forces on Hawai’i. With the military controlling approximately 20 percent of the land on the island of O’ahu, the U.S. Armed Forces are among the largest consumers of the island’s electricity.
Founded in the 1870’s, HECO is older than Hawai’i’s statehood and has been the only major company to power Hawai’i in the islands’ history. HECO’s power plants were also directly targeted by Japanese aircraft in the infamous surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, making it one of the only historical precedents of an attack on the U.S. power infrastructure by a foreign military. The outbreak of the war served as a catalyst for the government to spend $300,000 (approximately $6.5 million in today’s dollar terms) to upgrade HECO’s power infrastructure from further attacks. Although no open conflict has erupted in the Pacific, growing tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, coupled with local challenges in 2023-2024 exposing the fragility of HECO’s power infrastructure, have rekindled discussions of Hawai’i’s energy security.
In March 2023, an outbreak of wildfires on the island of Maui caused significant damage to HECO’s infrastructure on the island, causing island-wide power outages. Damages caused by the wildfires and related lawsuits sent HECO’s stock plummeting over 60 percent in August 2023. It has yet to recover. While concerns over the fragility of power grids in Hawai’i have returned to the realm of local media coverage, the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles metro area have reinvigorated discussions of climate change, wildfires, and energy and water security.
Given the U.S. Armed Forces’ substantial energy demands on HECO and the utility company’s unique set of challenges in maintaining power stability in the United States’ westernmost state, collaborations between HECO and the military in the development of renewable energy appear to be the most evident solution to U.S. military operations’ energy security in the Pacific.
HECO and the Military’s Renewable Backup
In May 2018, the U.S. Army announced a collaboration with HECO to establish a new power station on the Schofield Army Base in O’ahu that runs on biofuels. The Army claims the power station can operate for up to 30 days using on-island resources and can serve a “critical role in powering O’ahu in emergencies.” In January 2024, amid power outages caused by storm-related interruptions, the Schofield Generating Station contributed 40 megawatts into the O’ahu’s main grid, proving the viability of this Army-HECO collaboration.
The establishment of the Schofield Generating Station is part of the U.S. Army’s larger Utilities Privatization Program, which outsources the Army’s electricity demands to local suppliers. In November 2020, HECO was granted a 50-year contract valued at $638.5 million to distribute electricity to 12 Army installments in Hawai’i, further embedding the military dependency on HECO.
On January 13, 2025, HECO released a comprehensive new plan to invest $450 million to modernize its power grid to reduce impending risks from future wildfires. This announcement came just weeks after the company sold 90 percent of its stake in American Savings Bank, the third largest Hawai’i-based financial institution, to fund settlements from the 2023 Maui wildfires and pursue its modernization plan. The impact of the Maui wildfires has raised concerns about the integrity of the company’s credit, prompting HECO to request state officials in December 2024 to back the firm’s obligations on its wind and solar projects in the event of a default. Considering Hawai’i’s goal to reach 100 percent renewable power generation by 2045 and the increasing role HECO is playing in supplying power to Armed Forces facilities, the Hawai’i state government and Defense Department have substantial incentives to ensure the utility provider’s stability and expand renewable projects.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s longtime opposition to renewable energy, particularly wind energy, is well documented. However, as Trump enters his second term, it is still unclear how he will prioritize funding to the military-related energy projects while deregulating fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Regardless of Trump’s energy policies on the mainland U.S., Hawai’i’s idiosyncratic energy situation remains a critical issue for the Defense Department. The state is highly reliant on imported fossil fuels for power, which present a security risk in addition to causing Hawaiians to pay approximately three times the national average for electricity. Having a sustainable, independent energy grid for the island state is essential for stability to military operations in Hawai’i and the wider Pacific, irrespective of environmental issues.
Particularly as several of Trump’s new Cabinet appointees, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, addressed the need to counter China in the Indo-Pacific in the first week of their tenures, the stability of power to U.S. military bases in the Pacific will unlikely go neglected.
As Trump enacted a nationwide freeze on renewable energy development on January 20, 2025, the development of large-scale offshore wind power operation between O’ahu and Molokai islands, which is expected to eventually supply 25 percent of O’ahu’s electricity, and is a key part of HECO’s renewable buildout, is left in limbo.
Trump’s New Pacific Affairs Confidant
A key characteristic of the early days of Trump’s second term has been the administration’s center of gravity shifting toward Mar-a-Lago and an overrepresentation of Florida-based politicians, many of whom have foreign policy perspectives centered on Latin America. The one exception to this is Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who is not only a former Democratic congresswoman representing Hawai’i and military veteran but is one of the few figures in Trump’s direct orbit conscious of local political dynamics in U.S. Pacific territories.
During her tenure in Congress, Gabbard was an avid proponent of renewable energy and saw it as directly correlated with the military affairs. In 2017, Gabbard introduced the Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act (“OFF Act”), which aimed to shift the United States to 80 percent clean energy by 2027 and 100 percent by 2035. The OFF Act was a precursor to the more widely known Green New Deal, which is the core Democratic Party policy framework on renewable energy. While Gabbard’s primary rationale behind the OFF Act was centered around environmental issues, the case for renewable energy as an energy diversifier that reduces risks of interruptions in military operations is likely to be more palatable among the renewable energy skeptics applauding Trump’s calls to “drill baby drill.”
Since joining the Republican Party and entering Trump’s inner circle, specifically vying for the top job in the intelligence community, it is unclear how Gabbard’s position on energy security for the Armed Forces in Hawai’i and the Pacific has changed or if the issue will manifest tension within Trump’s new Cabinet. Nevertheless, the high level of respect that Gabbard commands among military veterans and among Republicans leaves reason to believe that her perspective on the role of renewable energy in the United States’ Indo-Pacific energy security may hold water in the Trump White House.