Bill Text: HI SB424 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Renewable Energy.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2023-12-11 - Carried over to 2024 Regular Session. [SB424 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2024-SB424-Introduced.html
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
424 |
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THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to renewable energy.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
The legislature further finds that climate change is primarily caused by excessive greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The most prevalent greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, which is emitted when trash, trees, coal, oil, or gas are burned. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, once carbon dioxide is emitted, it stays in the atmosphere for three hundred to one thousand years. Steps taken now to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide will affect the livability of the planet for generations.
The legislature further finds that twenty years ago, the legislature established the State's renewable portfolio standards model to ensure that the State's electric utility companies transition from using fossil fuels to renewable energy. At the time, biomass was considered a carbon neutral energy source. However, recent data show that not to be true.
The legislature further finds that much of the biomass used to generate electricity is wood in the form of trees or products made from trees. Trees sequester carbon dioxide, and the burning of trees and tree products releases carbon dioxide that would have otherwise been sequestered. Regrowing trees takes decades, and for this extended period, carbon dioxide that was released stays in the atmosphere.
The legislature further finds that burning wood emits fifty per cent more carbon on a per-unit-of-energy basis than burning coal. Despite claims of sustainability, the biomass energy industry is clearcutting forests that would otherwise be extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The United States is one of the largest suppliers of the twenty-two million tons of wood pellets consumed by the European Union each year. Communities in Virginia, Mississippi, and North Carolina are battling to protect forests from being fuel farms for European biomass burners.
The legislature further finds that there is presently no requirement that forests cut down for biomass energy will be allowed to regrow instead of being cut again and again, or that the land will not be developed for other uses. In short, there is no guarantee that new forests will be allowed to grow large enough to sequester as much carbon as the older, complex, carbon-rich forests that were cut.
The legislature further finds that the biomass industry has doubled in the last decade and is expected to expand by two hundred fifty per cent in the next ten years. This expansion would be a disaster for ecosystems upon which humans and animals depend, and it is grossly inconsistent with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The legislature further finds that intact forests are a vital part of the climate solution because they sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide long term natural storage. Instead of cutting this valuable natural resource, forests should be protected and allowed to sequester carbon, be a habitat for wildlife, and provide space for recreation, clean air, and water.
The legislature further finds that waste incineration is the most expensive and polluting way to manage waste or make energy. For the same energy output, trash incineration produces seventy per cent more pollution than burning coal. Compared to landfilling, trash burning releases twice as much carbon pollution and is far more polluting generally. Subsidizing the burning of waste and labeling it as renewable energy puts source reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting at a competitive disadvantage, and further encourages biomass burners to switch to burning waste, which they can be paid to take.
The legislature further finds that, pursuant to section 225P-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the State has established a statewide target to sequester more atmospheric carbon and greenhouse gasses than emitted within the State as quickly as practicable, but no later than 2045. In order to meet this target, utilities in the State should be required to meet their renewable portfolio standards obligations using only clean renewable energy sources, and excluding biomass and waste incineration.
Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to remove biomass from the renewable portfolio standards definition of renewable energy.
SECTION 2. Section 269-91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "renewable energy" to read as follows:
""Renewable
energy" means energy generated or produced using the following sources:
(1) Wind;
(2) The sun;
(3) Falling water;
(4) Biogas, including landfill and sewage-based
digester gas;
(5) Geothermal;
(6) Ocean water, currents, and waves, including
ocean thermal energy conversion;
[(7) Biomass, including biomass crops, agricultural
and animal residues and wastes, and municipal solid waste and other solid
waste;
(8)] (7)
Biofuels; and
[(9)] (8)
Hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources."
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Renewable Portfolio Standards; Renewable Energy; Definition; Biomass
Description:
Removes biomass from the renewable portfolio standard definition of renewable energy.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
