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Civil Beat went undercover this week in Honolulu state office buildings to gauge room temperatures and determine whether the government’s air conditioning use was a prime culprit in driving up Oahu’s energy usage.

With a state mandate to reduce energy consumption 30 percent by 2030, the question arose: Is our government’s AC use flaunting energy goals?

Air conditioning is a major part of electricity consumption in Hawaii. In hotels, it can account for 40 percent to 50 percent of energy load, while for office buildings it can be somewhere around 60 percent, according to Miles Kubo, COO of Energy Industries, a company specializing in energy efficiency.

The state energy office and electric utility companies have argued that the neighbor islands will need to accommodate renewable energy projects to feed the most populous island’s energy needs if we want to achieve energy self-sufficiency. Thus, it raises the question of whether Oahu is doing everything it can on the energy efficiency side – particularly since not everyone on the neighbor islands is pleased with the idea of hosting technologies such as wind turbines for the benefit of Oahu.

“It is not Lanai and Molokai’s responsibility to keep air conditioning running on Oahu,” said one Lanai resident testifying to the state about the Big Wind project, which aims to bring wind energy from the neighbor islands to Oahu via an undersea cable. “And if we are not careful, we will be nothing more than an industrial outpost. Oahu is like LA, it is living an unsustainable lifestyle and Oahu is not being told to cut back, we are being asked to enable it.”

Indeed, air conditioning proliferates in buildings and homes on Oahu, while it’s less commonplace on the neighbor islands, and many of Honolulu buildings were constructed in ways that don’t take advantage of Hawaii’s tradewinds.

So the Civil Beat plan, hatched by reporter Michael Levine, was straightforward: monitor government buildings with a thermometer, then “write about how much electricity (and money) is wasted air conditioning these places to the point where people need to wear fleece jackets to meetings!!!”

It seemed like a sure thing, with Civil Beat staff recounting shivering tales of cold buildings and thick sweaters.

Civil Beat – meaning me – procured the digital thermometer, and bringing my heaviest sweatshirt and camera, set out to document the AC excesses. Several hours were spent trekking hallways and lobbies of government departments – the Department of Land and Natural Resources; the Department of Budget and Finance; the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism; the Hawaii State Legislature; the Department of Health.

It wasn’t going well. The digital thermometer wasn’t dropping below 80 degrees. Intent on getting the story, I broke my cover and started entering offices, certain that inside I would find employees bundled in sweaters and temperatures dropping into the chilly 60’s. Still, the thermometer didn’t drop below 80 degrees.

My story disintegrated even more during an unrelated meeting with Richard Lim, director of DBEDT, when he made an off-hand remark about the government’s progress in energy efficiency.

He noted a report on the government’s energy efficiency measures, which turned out to be called, “Lead By Example.”

I snapped a photo of DBEDT’s room temperature on my way out, anyway. It was 78.1 degrees – not exactly the provocative data I set out to collect.

The story isn’t the exposé we thought it was. Rather the government appears to be pioneering efforts to reduce Hawaii’s energy consumption, convert to clean energy and achieve greater energy security.

Government buildings have reduced electricity use for the past three years — from mid-2007 to mid-2010, overall usage declined by more than 8 percent.

Part of the reduction could be attributed to furlough days and cooler than usual weather, but the state’s long-term energy efficiency plan is impressive. Sixty-nine buildings are in some stage of being retrofitted for energy efficiency appliances and photovoltaic panels are being installed on the roofs of 20 state facilities. Thirteen state buildings have received Energy Star awards and seven state buildings are LEED certified.

Ten main downtown offices have also undergone an energy audit, according to Carolyn Shon, who oversees the energy efficiency program for the state energy office. A company called NORESCO has completed a detailed survey of the buildings’ energy usage and designed a conservation plan that is projected to save $64 million in electricity costs during the course of 20 years. The state has undertaken similar projects for community colleges, expected to achieve $58 million in savings, and for the state’s public safety buildings, expected to result in another $47 million in savings. Shon said many of the 21 energy conservation measures planned for the state’s downtown offices addressed air conditioning costs.

So it appears that the state, at least, is doing what it can to reduce its electricity use. But are the rest of us?

The location this week where I did find people wearing sweaters indoors was Civil Beat’s Kaimuki newsroom, where the temperature registered a cooler 72.1 degrees.