Bill Text: HI SB2308 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating To Renewable Energy.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-24 - Referred to AEN/EET, CPN. [SB2308 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2022-SB2308-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2308
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

Relating to Renewable energy.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that climate change is occurring more rapidly and with more fury than previously predicted.  The prior consensus was that humanity had twenty years to reduce carbon emissions substantially to avoid a global disaster.  Recent data, however, shrink that time horizon to ten years.

     Climate change is caused by too high a concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent greenhouse gas, and, when emitted into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for three hundred to one thousand years, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  Other gases, prominently methane, are even more dangerous and have an outsized effect climate change.

     Global warming also produces feedback loops that accelerate climate change:  the emission of previously stored gases, such as trapped methane, escapes from melting permafrost in the artic tundra; warming oceans cannot sufficiently absorb greenhouse gases; and a warmer climate decreases the ability of leaves to absorb greenhouse gases.

     Two simultaneous approaches are needed to make the earth more habitable for future generations:  greenhouse gas emissions must be drastically cut; and mature forests must be preserved, and new forests must be created to draw greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.  In addition, oceans must be cleaned of siltation, contamination, and plastics to reduce their warming.

     What humans do -- or fail to do -- in the next decade will affect the habitability of the earth for decades, and even centuries.  Insufficient action will be disastrous for the human species.

     The legislature established the renewable portfolio standards model twenty years ago to ensure that Hawaii's electric utility companies transition from using fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.  At that time, all biomass was considered to be renewable in the short-term.  The carbon emitted during the burning phase is absorbed and stored during the growing phase, and at that time it was believed that this cycle was relatively brief.  It is now known, however, that the cycle is brief only for certain types of biomass, such as herbaceous crops, but the cycle is lengthy for other types of biomass, such as trees.

     When trees in a forest are cut and replanted with seedlings, a primitive and immature new ecosystem is created.  The primitive structure of monocrop plantation forests limits the drawdown of carbon dioxide.  Recent research has determined that this type of forest, counterintuitively, is a net emitter of carbon dioxide.  The roots of the new trees emit carbon dioxide, as do microorganisms in the soil that decompose organic matter.  The leaves of the trees take in carbon dioxide, but less than the total that is emitted by the monocrop plantation forest.  This deficit persists until the trees reach a certain point of maturity, at which point the forest becomes a net aggregator of carbon dioxide.  This maturation process takes a minimum of twenty years.  But that is too late, since humans have only ten years to sufficiently reduce carbon emissions.  Forests should, therefore, be preserved as a vital component of the strategy to control climate change.  Mature forests aggregate carbon dioxide and should not be cut to generate energy because the carbon dioxide that is thereby emitted stays in the atmosphere for too long.

     The importance of forests has been underscored by scientists and economists across the globe, who wrote to world leaders:

          The undersigned scientists and economists commend each of you for the ambitious goals you have announced for the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.  Forest preservation and restoration should be key tools for achieving this goal and simultaneously helping to address our global biodiversity crisis.  We urge you not to undermine both climate goals and the world's biodiversity by shifting from burning fossil fuels to burning trees to generate energy.

          For decades, producers of paper and timber products have generated electricity and heat as by-products from their process wastes.  This use does not lead to the additional harvest of wood.  In recent years, however, there has been a misguided move to cut down whole trees or to divert large portions of stem wood for bioenergy, releasing carbon that would otherwise stay locked up in forests.

          The result of this additional wood harvest is a large initial increase in carbon emissions, creating a "carbon debt," which increases over time as more trees are harvested for continuing bioenergy use.  Regrowing trees and displacement of fossil fuels may eventually pay off this carbon debt, but regrowth takes time the world does not have to solve climate change.  As numerous studies have shown, this burning of wood will increase warming for decades to centuries.  That is true even when the wood replaces coal, oil or natural gas.

          The reasons are fundamental.  Forests store carbon — approximately half the weight of dry wood is carbon.  When wood is harvested and burned, much and often more than half of the live wood in trees harvested is typically lost in harvesting and processing before it can supply energy, adding carbon to the atmosphere without replacing fossil fuels.  Burning wood is also carbon-inefficient, so the wood burned for energy emits more carbon up smokestacks than using fossil fuels.  Overall, for each kilowatt hour of heat or electricity produced, using wood initially is likely to add two to three times as much carbon to the air as using fossil fuels.

     Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to exclude trees, wood pellets, and other tree products made for burning, from the types of biomass considered as renewable energy in the determination of the renewable portfolio standard.

     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] Certain types of biomass, including herbaceous biomass crops, agricultural and animal residues and wastes, and municipal solid waste and other solid waste[;] but excluding trees, wood pellets, and other wood products made for burning;

     (8)  Biofuels; and

     (9)  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.

 

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

 

 

Report Title:

Renewable Energy; Biomass; Trees; Wood Products

 

Description:

Amends definition of "renewable energy" to exclude trees, wood pellets, and other wood products made for burning.

 

 

 

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