Hawaii 2025 Regular Session

Hawaii Senate Bill SCR106 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	THE SENATE S.C.R. NO. 106 THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025 STATE OF HAWAII SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION requesting the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development to commission a study of the different energy consumption sectors to determine which sector can be most quickly and cost-effectively decarbonized through additional public investment in combustion-free alternatives.
2	2
3	3	THE SENATE S.C.R. NO. 106
4	4	THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025
5	5	STATE OF HAWAII
6	6
7	7	THE SENATE
8	8
9	9	S.C.R. NO.
10	10
11	11	106
12	12
13	13	THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025
14	14
15	15
16	16
17	17	STATE OF HAWAII
18	18
19	19
20	20
21	21
22	22
23	23
24	24
25	25
26	26
27	27
28	28
29	29	SENATE CONCURRENT
30	30
31	31	RESOLUTION
32	32
33	33
34	34
35	35
36	36
37	37	requesting the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development to commission a study of the different energy consumption sectors to determine which sector can be most quickly and cost-effectively decarbonized through additional public investment in combustion-free alternatives.
38	38
39	39
40	40
41	41
42	42
43	43	WHEREAS, it is important to use Hawaii taxpayer funds wisely to create the most benefit for the State without speculative investments, unnecessary subsidies, or promotion of energy technologies or fuels that conflict with the State's climate change goals or the peoples' constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment under article XI, section 9 of the Hawaii State Constitution; and WHEREAS, the settlement to Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation, Civ. No. 1CCV-22-0000631 requires that the State establish a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan that can achieve a goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions across all transportation modes within the State, including ground transportation and sea and air interisland transportation no later than 2045; and WHEREAS, combustion of hydrocarbons of any sort, even if derived from biomass or waste, releases greenhouse gases and cannot be considered zero emissions; and WHEREAS, the goal of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan can only be accomplished by electrifying all transportation modes and by ensuring that the State's electric grid is also zero greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. combustion-free); and WHEREAS, there are three sectors of energy use as tracked by the United States Energy Information Administration: electricity, transportation, and heating, with heating further broken down into industrial, commercial, and residential sectors; and WHEREAS, technology exists today to fully meet the needs of the electricity sector using conservation, energy efficient appliances, and solar, wind, and energy storage, which can be made as firm as needed through decentralization and adequate storage capacity; and WHEREAS, residential and commercial cooking, and space and water heating needs are easily electrified with existing technology, such as ground- and air-source heat pumps and hybrid electric water heaters; and WHEREAS, it is possible to fully electrify land-based transportation, including heavy trucking, so that trucks and other land-based transportation modes can be powered by clean, non-burn, electricity sources; and WHEREAS, it is possible to fully electrify ocean-based transportation, including international cargo ships, with batteries and even stationary wind masts; and WHEREAS, inter-island air-travel can be accomplished with electric sea gliders, as Hawaiian Airlines is already exploring; and WHEREAS, inter-continental air travel remains the one sector that is hardest to convert to clean energy, though Airbus aims to bring to market the world's first hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft by 2035; and WHEREAS, combustible carbon-based fuels release greenhouse gases as well as other harmful air pollutants, and the production of burnable fuels has many other environmental implications, including the use of precious land for fuel instead of food, depletion of water and soils, spread of genetically modified organisms, and, if using waste streams to make fuel, release of toxic chemicals and solid waste byproducts; and WHEREAS, hydrogen energy production and use contains many of the same production problems unless green hydrogen is produced through the electrolysis of water using wind and solar power; however, the energy losses in converting water to green hydrogen are so significant that it makes no sense to use clean energy to produce green hydrogen until the electric grid is running almost entirely on clean energy and there is excess of wind and solar energy to spare, which can be stored as green hydrogen when not needed directly; and WHEREAS, Hawaii's renewable portfolio standard law requires electric utilities in the State to provide one hundred percent renewable energy by 2045, and the State was close to reaching a renewable portfolio standard of thirty-five percent in 2023; and WHEREAS, technologies that turn waste into fuels are highly speculative, controversial, and polluting, and typically fail to operate at a commercial scale, usually falling apart technically, economically, or both; and WHEREAS, when all carbon releases are properly accounted for, the climate impacts of biomass and waste-based biofuels are close to, or greater than the climate impacts of the petroleum products they would replace; and WHEREAS, investing in infrastructure intended to transition to cleaner options in later years is an investment dead end that makes it more difficult politically and economically to progress into replacing combustion-based fuels that are currently marketed as clean or sustainable fuels; and WHEREAS, it is wise to allocate limited public funding first on existing, clean, combustion-free solutions, focusing on energy sectors where those solutions are not yet fully implemented; now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2025, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development is requested to commission a study of the different energy consumption sectors to determine which sector can be most quickly and cost-effectively decarbonized through additional public investment in combustion-free alternatives; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor and Director of the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development. OFFERED BY: _____________________________ Report Title: Hawaii State Energy Office; Energy Consumption Sector; Decarbonization; Study
44	44
45	45	WHEREAS, it is important to use Hawaii taxpayer funds wisely to create the most benefit for the State without speculative investments, unnecessary subsidies, or promotion of energy technologies or fuels that conflict with the State's climate change goals or the peoples' constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment under article XI, section 9 of the Hawaii State Constitution; and
46	46
47	47
48	48
49	49	WHEREAS, the settlement to Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation, Civ. No. 1CCV-22-0000631 requires that the State establish a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan that can achieve a goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions across all transportation modes within the State, including ground transportation and sea and air interisland transportation no later than 2045; and
50	50
51	51
52	52
53	53	WHEREAS, combustion of hydrocarbons of any sort, even if derived from biomass or waste, releases greenhouse gases and cannot be considered zero emissions; and
54	54
55	55
56	56
57	57	WHEREAS, the goal of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan can only be accomplished by electrifying all transportation modes and by ensuring that the State's electric grid is also zero greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. combustion-free); and
58	58
59	59
60	60
61	61	WHEREAS, there are three sectors of energy use as tracked by the United States Energy Information Administration: electricity, transportation, and heating, with heating further broken down into industrial, commercial, and residential sectors; and
62	62
63	63
64	64
65	65	WHEREAS, technology exists today to fully meet the needs of the electricity sector using conservation, energy efficient appliances, and solar, wind, and energy storage, which can be made as firm as needed through decentralization and adequate storage capacity; and
66	66
67	67
68	68
69	69	WHEREAS, residential and commercial cooking, and space and water heating needs are easily electrified with existing technology, such as ground- and air-source heat pumps and hybrid electric water heaters; and
70	70
71	71
72	72
73	73	WHEREAS, it is possible to fully electrify land-based transportation, including heavy trucking, so that trucks and other land-based transportation modes can be powered by clean, non-burn, electricity sources; and
74	74
75	75
76	76
77	77	WHEREAS, it is possible to fully electrify ocean-based transportation, including international cargo ships, with batteries and even stationary wind masts; and
78	78
79	79
80	80
81	81	WHEREAS, inter-island air-travel can be accomplished with electric sea gliders, as Hawaiian Airlines is already exploring; and
82	82
83	83
84	84
85	85	WHEREAS, inter-continental air travel remains the one sector that is hardest to convert to clean energy, though Airbus aims to bring to market the world's first hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft by 2035; and
86	86
87	87
88	88
89	89	WHEREAS, combustible carbon-based fuels release greenhouse gases as well as other harmful air pollutants, and the production of burnable fuels has many other environmental implications, including the use of precious land for fuel instead of food, depletion of water and soils, spread of genetically modified organisms, and, if using waste streams to make fuel, release of toxic chemicals and solid waste byproducts; and
90	90
91	91
92	92
93	93	WHEREAS, hydrogen energy production and use contains many of the same production problems unless green hydrogen is produced through the electrolysis of water using wind and solar power; however, the energy losses in converting water to green hydrogen are so significant that it makes no sense to use clean energy to produce green hydrogen until the electric grid is running almost entirely on clean energy and there is excess of wind and solar energy to spare, which can be stored as green hydrogen when not needed directly; and
94	94
95	95
96	96
97	97	WHEREAS, Hawaii's renewable portfolio standard law requires electric utilities in the State to provide one hundred percent renewable energy by 2045, and the State was close to reaching a renewable portfolio standard of thirty-five percent in 2023; and
98	98
99	99
100	100
101	101	WHEREAS, technologies that turn waste into fuels are highly speculative, controversial, and polluting, and typically fail to operate at a commercial scale, usually falling apart technically, economically, or both; and
102	102
103	103
104	104
105	105	WHEREAS, when all carbon releases are properly accounted for, the climate impacts of biomass and waste-based biofuels are close to, or greater than the climate impacts of the petroleum products they would replace; and
106	106
107	107
108	108
109	109	WHEREAS, investing in infrastructure intended to transition to cleaner options in later years is an investment dead end that makes it more difficult politically and economically to progress into replacing combustion-based fuels that are currently marketed as clean or sustainable fuels; and
110	110
111	111
112	112
113	113	WHEREAS, it is wise to allocate limited public funding first on existing, clean, combustion-free solutions, focusing on energy sectors where those solutions are not yet fully implemented; now, therefore,
114	114
115	115
116	116
117	117	BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2025, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development is requested to commission a study of the different energy consumption sectors to determine which sector can be most quickly and cost-effectively decarbonized through additional public investment in combustion-free alternatives; and
118	118
119	119
120	120
121	121	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor and Director of the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development.
122	122
123	123
124	124
125	125
126	126
127	127
128	128
129	129	OFFERED BY: _____________________________
130	130
131	131
132	132
133	133	OFFERED BY:
134	134
135	135	_____________________________
136	136
137	137
138	138
139	139
140	140
141	141
142	142
143	143
144	144
145	145
146	146
147	147	Report Title:
148	148
149	149	Hawaii State Energy Office; Energy Consumption Sector; Decarbonization; Study