HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2786
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024
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 electricity rates are a significant component of household budgets and should be reduced where feasible. In recent years, the costs of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power (backed up by battery and other means of storage) have dropped below the costs of power from most existing power plants fueled by fossil fuels (coal, oil, or natural gas), wood, or trash. For example, the costs for the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative's Lawai Solar and Energy Storage Project average eleven cents per kilowatt hour, far below the cost of biomass plants. With improved battery/storage technologies, alternative renewable sources now can be just as reliable as plants that burn wood, trash, or fossil fuels.

In addition, the existing power plants that burn fossil fuels, wood, or trash are major contributors to climate warming. Climate warming is 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. Action taken now to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide will affect the livability of the planet for generations.

Recent data show that the rate and intensity of climate warming is greater than predicted. The years from 2013-2021 all rank among the ten warmest years on record, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

Twenty years ago, the legislature established the State's renewable portfolio standards model to ensure that Hawaii's electric utility companies transition from using fossil fuels to renewable energy. At the time, biomass was considered a "carbon neutral" energy source. Two major sources of biomass combustion are the burning of trees and the burning of waste.

However, burning trees will actually add to climate warming for at least the next several decades or longer. Trees remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere, but mature trees remove more carbon than saplings and it takes decades to regrow mature trees. Burning trees is fifty per cent worse for the climate than burning coal because wood is a less energy-dense fuel and much more must be burned to get the same amount of energy.

Waste incineration is the most expensive and polluting way to manage waste or to make energy. For the same energy output, trash incineration releases sixty-five per cent more carbon dioxide than burning coal. Compared to landfilling, trash burning releases significantly more carbon pollution and is far more polluting generally.

In order to reduce both electricity rates and greenhouse gasses, we should immediately disincentivize expensive and polluting biomass incineration by eliminating biomass from the renewable portfolio standard.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to remove biomass from the renewable portfolio standard 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.

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

Electricity Rates; Climate Warming; Biomass; Greenhouse Emissions; Renewable Energy

Description:

Eliminates 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.