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Hawaii’s push to reduce the high cost of energy for residents is running up against the mainland environmental movement to stop natural gas drilling and the controversial practice of fracking.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced this year that the state was turning to natural gas to help bring down rates for consumers who pay more than triple the national average for electricity. The administration expects to finalize a plan for moving forward with imports early next year, according to Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz.

But the national chapter of the Sierra Club is working to stop mainland companies from exporting natural gas, and this includes to Hawaii.

Recently, the environmental group intervened in an application before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, filed by Hawaii Gas, in the hopes of stopping the import of liquefied natural gas to the islands.

And the Sierra Club is working to halt 18 planned LNG export facilities on the mainland which are currently being reviewed by the U.S. Department of Energy, according to Allison Chin, the group’s president.

“We think that without a clear understanding that this can be done safely — and there is no evidence to that fact — then we are putting people and communities at risk by increasing drilling just to export it,” Chin told Civil Beat in a recent interview. “It doesn’t make sense.”

But Jeff Kissel, CEO of Hawaii Gas, the company leading the effort to import LNG, says the environmental group is missing the point.

“What the Sierra Club is overlooking is that our state is bleeding badly,” he said. “We are spending as a percent of the state gross domestic product more than twice as much on energy as we did 10 years ago. And that money is leaving the state, which means that it’s not spent on education, infrastructure, jobs or our businesses.”

Currently, other than in Alaska, no companies on the mainland export natural gas. But hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, has opened up vast resources to drilling. As a result, the price of natural gas has plummeted in recent years, leading to heightened demand domestically and abroad, according to energy experts. Amid the gas rush, companies on the mainland have begun clamoring to take advantage of larger markets.

In Hawaii, which is almost completely dependent on oil for its energy needs, the cost of electricity has risen by 50 percent since 2010, according to utility data. The spike is in large part due to a policy shift in Japan that took the country’s 50 nuclear reactors offline after the devastating tsunami and Fukushima disaster.

Japan has been importing increasing amounts of the same low sulfur fuel oil that Hawaii uses in its generators, leading to increased demand and higher electricity prices. The trend is not expected to reverse itself anytime soon and the Abercrombie administration is hoping that natural gas will provide some relief to ratepayers as the state transitions to more renewable energy sources.

“Energy costs are squeezing the working middle class in a very painful way,” said Schatz, who is overseeing energy policy for the Abercrombie administration. “And we all have an obligation to make sure that as we continue to make progress in clean energy, that we don’t do so willy nilly and at the expense of ratepayers. We’re trying to strike a balance. The point is to make Hawaii an example for the world in terms of a clean energy economy that actually works. But in order for a clean energy economy to work, rates have to be stable and LNG holds some promise in that area.”

But concerns about fracking and the natural gas industry are rising. Extensive investigations by and have revealed hundreds of cases of water contamination, potential links between drilling and earthquakes and an industry that has been able to sidestep major environmental regulations.

Hydraulic fracturing works by blasting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into deep wells to extract oil and gas deposits in shale rock.

Definitive studies on the full range of environmental risks of fracturing are lacking, according to an analysis by ProPublica. In particular, it’s not clear to what extent the practice poses a threat to drinking water, a top concern. A 2004 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded there was no risk to drinking water, but, following reports of contamination and the urging of Congress, the EPA is currently conducting a more extensive study that is expected to be released in 2014.

In the meantime, the Sierra Club is moving aggressively forward in trying to stop fracking. It’s a major political reversal for the environmental organization that accepted more than $25 million from the natural gas industry between 2007 and 2010. Chin said that the donations went primarily to help with the Sierra Club’s campaign against coal. But as environmental concerns about fracking mounted, the Sierra Club rebuffed another $30 million in donations in 2010 and has launched its Beyond Natural Gas campaign, with a tagline of “Dirty, Dangerous and Run Amok.”

Schatz believes environmental concerns about fracking are real. But as Hawaii transitions to renewable energy, it will have to continue to rely on fossil fuel for some of its energy needs.

“We are not comparing LNG to, for instance, solar energy. We are comparing LNG to what we currently do, which is burn fuel oil, which is one of the dirtiest, most expensive propositions that you will ever find,” he said. “And so in terms of getting baseload power to Hawaii’s businesses and residents in an affordable way, LNG shows significant promise. And it bears repeating that even under the most aggressive clean energy goals in the nation, we are still going to be generating some portion of our portfolio from fossil fuel.”

Hawaii has a state mandate to transition to 40 percent renewable energy by 2030.

Hawaii Gas hopes to act as a natural gas supplier for the state’s electric utilities, other power producers and even ground transportation companies, according to Kissel, the company CEO.

Kissel said that while he believed the Sierra Club had the “community’s interest at heart,” blocking the importation of LNG to Hawaii is bad policy.

“They need to understand that they are actually taking food out of people’s mouths when they take that kind of imperious view of what we should do here because they think it is the right thing for them there,” he said.

In August, Hawaii Gas filed an application with FERC to begin importing a small amount of LNG in containers for use in back-up generation. It’s part of a three-phased plan that would eventually lead to large-scale distribution, storage and re-gasification facilities.

The Sierra Club, in its application to intervene in the FERC proceedings last month, argues that the company shouldn’t be allowed to get its foot in the door by submitting the plan in three phases. Rather, the group argues that full environmental reviews need to be conducted for the entire three-phase project. This includes an environmental impact statement, as well as reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Endangered Species Act.

The Sierra Club also argues that FERC is required to consider the environmental impacts of increased drilling on the mainland that would result from imports of LNG to Hawaii.

Kissel said that a review of the full, three-phase plan is impossible, because it’s a concept.

Chin also contends there is no evidence that natural gas prices will stay low.

“It’s not the magic bullet that everyone might be looking for and I don’t believe the true cost of gas has actually been assessed,” she said. “I think all of these savings that folks are talking about are really underestimates of the true costs.”

The New York Times analyzed hundreds of internal industry emails and documents last year that raised questions about how viable the natural gas market really is.

“In the e-mails, energy executives, industry lawyers, state geologists and market analysts voice skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves,” the newspaper wrote.

In particular, the documents show industry concern over how much natural gas on the continental U.S. can be extracted affordably.

But Kissel said that the bottom line for Hawaii when it comes to cost is that the state needs to diversify its energy resources, as is done on the mainland.

“We’re advocating for a diverse energy policy, not over-reliance on any one source, which is really the smartest way to go into the future,” he said.

“I do know if you diversify, you may not come up with the cheapest, but you won’t end up with the most expensive, which is where we are today.”