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Even though the world faces melting Arctic sea ice, more violent storms and flooding, dying coral reefs, more droughts and wildfires, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer suggested in Honolulu on Tuesday that Americans shouldn’t expect great solutions from the nation’s capital.

At the opening of the conference, “Ascent: Building a Secure and Sustainable Water and Energy Future for Hawaii,” the prominent California Democrat described an erosion of bipartisanship when it comes to environmental legislation.

“Protecting the environment used to be a bipartisan issue, and there were strong leaders on both sides of the aisle when our landmark environmental laws were passed four decades ago,” she told hundreds of people at the high-powered environmental conference at the University of Hawaii’s Mae Zenke Orvis Auditorium.

Under a democratic administration, Republican opposition has solidified, she said, despite mounting evidence that average temperatures are increasing and extreme weather is becoming more common — with vast repercussions for both the economy and the environment.

“Unfortunately, in just a few short years those of us who want to take meaningful action have been forced instead to put our efforts into defending our landmark environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act, from devastating rollbacks by Republicans in the House,” said Boxer.

“Special interests, including big oil, have erected what my colleague, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, calls a special interest barricade of lies around the capitol.”

Boxer, who received a standing ovation, was preaching to the choir. Hawaii is overwhelmingly environmentalist and the room included many eager students, government officials and representatives of private industries who are directly or indirectly involved in encouraging sustainability, whether in energy, water or transportation.

“I think everyone here knows that climate change is real. Well, that is one difference right away from the U.S. Senate,” she said, drawing laughs.

But if Washington, D.C., is incapable of responding to the diverse challenges of climate change, where does that leave Hawaii — which Boxer described as “ground zero” for the impacts of climate change — as it searches for a response?

Several dozen local and national leaders spent the day discussing challenges and possible solutions at the conference.

Specific discussions centered around threats to Hawaii’s fresh water supply, the challenges of switching from traditional to renewable energy sources and how to get island residents to increasingly forgo cars in favor of more sustainable or collective modes of transportation, like biking and mass transit.

‘Peak Water’

For decades, the concept of “peak oil” — the moment when the extraction of petroleum from the ground reaches its highest point, leaving oil production in terminal decline — dominated talk about the need for energy alternatives.

But Hawaii has now reached the point of “peak water,” warned Kyle Datta, a partner at Ulupono Initiative, which seeks sustainable solutions for the islands.

“We are mining groundwater resources at an unsustainable rate,” he told attendees at a panel discussion.

The increasing demands on the islands’ aquifers and ailing watersheds, as well as the shifting rain patterns that result from climate change, risk causing long-term harm to Hawaii’s water supply, he said.

Market based solutions — like waiting for supply and demand to spark a big jump in water prices that might get people to consume less — won’t work in this case, Datta said. It takes between 20 and 50 years for underground water supplies to replenish, depending on rainfall.

“We can’t wait for water prices to rise,” he said. “It will be too late.”

At a break-out session on Water Resource Sustainability, Cliff Voss, a research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Society, showed an animated slideshow to demonstrate the decline in the Pearl Harbor aquifer over the past century. The amount of fresh water appears to have dropped in half.

If the current pumping rate continues, all of the wells that supply the aquifer will be depleted or they will face other problems, like getting flushed with salt water, he said.

Voss said that scientists aren’t sure exactly how much fresh water remains or how quickly the groundwater is getting restored, making it difficult to plan for the future.

The End of HECO?

Hawaii’s push toward energy efficiency and renewable energy was another big topic.

The state has grabbed national headlines for its progress with alternative energy sources and for the obstacles Hawaii has faced as its electric grids have tried to absorb more renewable power.

The Big Island leads the state, with up to half of its electricity coming from renewables, including geothermal, wind and solar.

Statewide, the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, which was signed in 2008, mandates that 40 percent of Hawaii’s electricity be derived from renewables by 2030.

HECO’s CEO Richard Rosenblum said Tuesday that the utility will likely surpass this, with up to 60 percent of electricity coming from renewable sources just 16 years from now.

Recent progress and optimistic projections don’t mean that the state’s switch to renewables has been — or will be — smooth or easy.

With so much more renewable energy coming online and growing numbers of customers switching to rooftop solar, some policy experts have warned that HECO — which serves Oahu, the Big Island and Maui County, and maintains the islands’ critical electricity infrastructure — could be put out of business.

“Is the utility in a death spiral?” Hawaii’s Consumer Advocate Jeff Ono, asked during a panel he was moderating on energy policy. It was a provocative comment, especially on a panel that included HECO’s CEO.

Rosenblum responded by saying that the utility will stick around — even if it ends up making some missteps.

“Companies make bad decisions all the time,” he said. “Rarely do they result in a death spiral.”

Rosenblum said HECO is actively switching from an old business model in which it was the sole provider of electricity to one in which it enables numerous energy providers — including wind, geothermal and solar companies — to sell to the utility.

He likened it to Amazon, the online company that acts as an intermediary between customers and providers.

In this new vision, he said, “We are the glue that makes all the commerce work.”