She also asked a Chamber of Commerce audience at the King Kamehameha Golf Club to help her achieve the goals for Maui and the rest of Hawai'i in 2008, such as preserving coastal land, creating renewable energy sources and improving the harbors.

The former Maui County council member and two-term mayor said she needs their involvement and lobbying acumen.

"It is an exciting time to be alive," Lingle said.

But it also a challenging time, she said. Without renewable energy and transportation infrastructure in place, Maui will struggle to survive when its population increases by nearly 50 percent in the 27 years.

"We need to make giant strides. Baby steps aren't going to take us where we need to go," Lingle said.

Lingle was referring to the Kahului Harbor improvement plan for which she has proposed floating $345 million in revenue bonds. Almost all of the island's goods and fuel arrive by ship, and the harbor is regularly jammed with daily cruise ship arrivals as well as container ships and barges.

In six years, Lingle hopes to have completed improvements proposed in a 2030 Master Plan that is still undergoing the environmental review process. It calls for new piers, a cruise ship berth, two more breakwaters and a slip for barges and the Hawaii Superferry.

"This plan is long overdue," Lingle said.

The governor, a former publisher of a weekly newspaper on Moloka'i, also said that the media often do a poor job of selecting stories that are truly important. If you went by the coverage on CNN, you'd think that Britney Spears' downfall had a significant impact on our lives, she said.

She then called on people to get information from the Maui Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber President Pamela Tumpap said her organization has a list of 100 positions important to the island, including better highways, medical malpractice reform to attract nurses and doctors here and creating more affordable housing and rentals. Tumpap summed up Lingle's priorities as the economy, environment and personal responsibility or less government regulation.

During the question-and-answer period, Lisa Dunn of the Association for Improved Health Care on Maui asked the governor to help her organization achieve its eponymous goals.

Lingle trumpeted her wish to repeal or reform the State Health Planning and Development Act, which requires a certificate of need review for new medical facilities and services.

She said the SHPDA unfairly scuttled the proposed Malulani Hospital in Kihei on the basis that it would compete with Maui Memorial Medical Center.

The governor chided local Democratic lawmakers for "not supporting something that relies on private investment" during the last legislative session.

Lingle also said she supported efforts by the state and nonprofits to acquire more land for conservation, and even implicitly endorsed local efforts to prevent development around Honolua Bay.

The state needs to turn away from an economy based on land development simply because land is a finite resource, Lingle said. As more land is developed, there will eventually be a negative impact on existing businesses because tourists won't want to come here if there is little natural beauty left, she said. Lingle also took aim at the Maui Electric Co. Hawaii has the highest utility and oil prices in the country, she said.

MECO has no incentive to look to renewable energy sources because it is able to pass through to its customers 100 percent of the oil price increases, Lingle said.

MECO doesn't absorb the risk. But utilities in other states are only allowed to pass through 20 percent of fuel cost increases, she said.

"So no matter what you do to conserve energy, your utility bill goes up," Lingle said.

Lingle cited legislation and tax breaks and other incentives that could make renewable energy such as wind, wave and solar power more abundant to private investors and the public.

"Imagine if the billions we spend on bringing oil here each year was spent here instead," Lingle said.

U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Alexander Karsner, who heads the department's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Division, called Lingle the "greatest governor in the United States." He said that Hawai'i's plentiful natural resources make it literally a hot spot for renewable energy.

Federal and state initiatives could eventually eliminate people's need to buy energy from the utilities, he said. Devices such as solar panels and microturbines could produce enough energy for average Hawaii homeowners to satisfy their own needs and be able to sell electricity to the utility.

Mayor Charmaine Tavares said she liked Lingle's emphasis on preserving natural areas and renewable energy, which are also the mayor's priorities.

"All the planets are aligned for something significant to happen soon," Tavares said.