HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0269.014 2022-2024 p/CawGi
fie,s. 163-2�
CO41.266I
From: David Hunt
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2023 7:06 AM
To: Evans, Cynthia F.W.; Galimba, Michelle M.; Inaba, Holeka; Kagiwada,Jennifer; Kanealii-
Kleinfelder, Matt; Kierkiewicz, Ashley; Kimball, Heather; Lee Loy, Sue;Villegas, Rebecca;
Council Testimony
Subject: Resolution 163 a final thought COUNTY CLERK
COUNTY OF HAWAI'I
RECEIVED �,��/
RE RES. 163 Tim B ett
Date MAY 0 2023
A final thought for you to consider:
The "County" doesn't develop energy sources for the purposes of supplying power or selling it.The County does not operate
in the capacity of a utility.
The County is barely able to manage water as a service,as private-public partnership, as in the role of a utility.
The County is and remains an energy customer, not a private sector energy producer, developer, or reseller,as in "a
stakeholder".
The County,with Res 163,would literally be(inappropriately) meddling in the"business" of energy, in the role of a"deal
broker"through this enabling resolution and policy provisions.
Res. 163 is far outside the realm of appropriate for the County.
, 6, "P, Jva & A
Aloha, Peace, Love, Music&Gratitude
David Hunt, Honoka'a
Comm.No IV.
1 Ref.To: II KM iTa
Ref.Datei r7V J 19
From: David Hunt
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2023 2:53 PM
To: Evans, Cynthia F.W.; Galimba, Michelle M.; Inaba, Holeka; Kagiwada, Jennifer; Kanealii-
Kleinfelder, Matt; Kierkiewicz, Ashley; Kimball, Heather; Lee Loy, Sue;Villegas, Rebecca;
Council Testimony
Subject: Resolution 163
Councilors,
I have thoroughly read, re-read, discussed, and considered this Resolution and MOU.
This Resolution / MOU is the county stating that we have
decided to become a 'hydrogen society," which we absolutely have
NOT.
It is positioning the county to receive funding and support to
embark on thispath when we never committed to it in the first
place.
It becomes increasingly difficult to unwind ill-conceived initiatives
once funds are accepted.
This commitment to hydrogen could well lead to missed
opportunities regarding other more appropriate energy solutions.
In the interest of your constituents I ask you to step back and
conduct a community engagement process, like the one that was
REQUIRED as part of this submission, but which the county never
conducted.
For all of these reasons, disapproval is warranted. The proposal
never qualified to begin with.
We expect and deserve more and better from you and the mayor.
1
From: David Hunt
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2023 4:16 AM
To: Evans, Cynthia F.W.; Galimba, Michelle M.; Inaba, Holeka; Kagiwada, Jennifer; Kanealii-
Kleinfelder, Matt; Kierkiewicz, Ashley; Kimball, Heather; Lee Loy, Sue;Villegas, Rebecca;
Council Testimony
Subject: Strongly Oppose Resolution 163 (hydrogen)
County Council 9 AM May 3 Hearing
Strongly Oppose Resolution 163(hydrogen)
This rushed, ill-informed, extremely vague proposed resolution is NOT in the interest of our local people or aina.
NOT economically,
NOT environmentally.
NOT sound,just, energy policy.
Res. 163 Make NONLOGICAL SENSE-and as such- many are wondering whose interests WOULD be served by this vague,
rushed, uninformed nonsense.
The Council would be blatantly abdicating its responsibility to taxpayers if it were to approve the vague language in
Resolution 163 to authorize the Mayor"execute,on behalf of the County an agreement, and related documents.."
You are county council REPRESENTATIVES.
Please REPRESENT the interests of your constituents.
Aloha, Peace, Love, Music&Gratitude
David Hunt, Honoka'a
cynthia.evans@hawaiicounty.gov
michelle.galimba@hawaiicounty.gov
holeka.inaba@hawaiicounty.gov
jennifer.kagiwada@hawaiicounty.gov
matt.kanealii-kleinfelder@hawaiicounty.gov
ashley.kierkiewicz@hawaiicounty.gov
heather.kimball@hawaiicounty.gov
sue.leeloy@hawaiicounty.gov
rebecca.villegas@hawaiicountygov
counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov
1
•
E ; R J "� ''r rri wet
FACT SHEET: Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
In 2003, President Bush proposed $1.2 billion for Fuel Cells
"pollution-free" hydrogen vehicles run on clean energy from Once produced, hydrogen has to be put into a fuel cell.
hydrogen and oxygen. It is held up as a major step Fuel cells use a catalyst to speed up a chemical reaction
toward a "hydrogen economy," powered by a clean and between hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity, heat
endless supply of energy. and water.9
The reality is that the hydrogen economy is costly, There are several kinds of fuel cells; the type most widely
inefficient, will not eliminate our dependence on dirty in use already is the phosphoric acid cell, mostly in
energy, or solve the greenhouse gas problem. buildings.10 Other types include molten carbonate, which
are as large as railroad cars,11 and solid oxide fuel cells,
Not Pollution-Free , both of which are not practical for transportation, but may
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, a be used for stationary applications in buildings, where
seemingly perfect, endless supply of energy. But hydrogen waste heat and electricity from the fuel cell can be used.i2
itself does not produce energy; it is a carrier, and stores
energy like a battery. Pure hydrogen is not found in Large stationary fuel cells could be an effective tool for
nature, so energy has to be used to separate hydrogen solving grid intermittency problems with wind and solar,
from the other substances it is stored in, either through storing energy in the form of hydrogen when there is extra
"reforming" natural gas, extracting it from substances like power and sending it back to the grid when there is less.
methanol, or through electrolysis (the process of However they don't make sense until the grid is relying
separating hydrogen from water).2 largely on wind and solar - otherwise the fuel used to
make hydrogen would be more efficiently used to meet
Currently, 95% of hydrogen is produced from natural gas, a electricity demand directly, instead of taking an extra step
fossil fuel.3 The fact that hydrogen is largely made from to make hydrogen.
dirty energy is also unlikely to change in the near future:
the National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, drafted by the The kind of fuel cell best suited for transportation, the
Bush administration and the energy industry, states that proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, requires an
90% of hydrogen will be made using coal, oil and natural excessively expensive platinum catalyst and has an
gas, and the remaining 10% from nuclear.4 efficiency of only 35-40% (using natural gas).h'
Biofuels, like ethanol, are another way to make hydrogen. Storage, Safety, and Transport
But there are plenty of fossil fuel inputs in biofuel Hydrogen has to be concentrated for use in transportation:
production: feedstock crops use natural gas-based either liquefied, compressed, or stored in a metal
fertilizer, energy-intensive farm machinery,5 and in the case hydride.14 Hydrogen molecules are extremely tiny and will
of ethanol plants, are powered by mini coal and gas leak from almost any container or pipe. It has very little
plants. Even if ethanol production were somehow clean, it energy by volume it takes 3,000 times more space to store
is adding another inefficient process into the inefficient the same amount of energy as gasoline.15
process of making hydrogen. It would make more sense
powering cars directly. It can only be liquefied at temperatures near absolute zero;
it will boil off and leak at air temperature. • The liquefying
This does not sound clean or "pollution-free." It doesprocess uses 40% of the energy in the hydrogens with a
sound like a way for the energy industry to continue using product that only contains % the energy of gasoline by
the same polluting technologies while hiding it behind the volume.17
guise of"clean" hydrogen. �/ u �m _ n
+� ,: 41['6 et.. i �, I 1 ig 1h P2} ,
What about Hydrogen from Clean Energy? � ' a` t- � F. r� r� � 4,',e' ,
Hydrogen is promoted as a way to address the problem of Fla p �i 4 4
greenhouse gas pollution and the resulting global r , f; � " 1x•• I, , ''.'' ", °,;'` �`I ,' '
warming. The onlywayto do this is to produce hydrogen i' l.r '` �' . 1
by splitting water with wind and solar generated electricity. ,.r. r, n'� = M "� V
1
However, this wastes 4 times the amount of electricity that
the hydrogen will actually yield.? ; Ili� ` 2 .° µ.
Used directly, that clean energy could be more effective in ,,16.- I `,
reducing greenhouse gas pollution: 1 megawatt houra,"4 15''
(MWh) of clean electricity used to make hydrogen for a . . .,a
fuel cell car would offset about 500 lbs of carbon dioxide
(CO2) from oil; that same amount in the grid could offset 10% of vehicles on the road would have to be hydrogen
2,200 lbs from a coal plant or 810 lbs from a gas plant.8 trucks to meet transportation fuel demand 35
While less energy-intensive than liquefaction, compressing, The wind and solar energy that might be used to generate
hydrogen still takes 15% of the hydrogen's energy.:* clean hydrogen could directly be put to use powering
Compressed hydrogen, at very best, would take up at least electric cars, cutting out energy-wasting middle steps, like
4 times as much space in a tank as gasoline for the same conversion to hydrogen and back.
amount of energy.19 Plus the storage tanks for
compressed hydrogen cost 100 times the cost of a gas Hydrogen is a False Solution
tank. Also, stronger materials, like steel, are more likely So why is hydrogen being promoted when there are easier
to react with hydrogen and become brittle. Combined with solutions that can be implemented now? The energy and
the high pressure, this makes the tanks susceptible to auto industries have a stake in continuing what they are
bursting. doing; they even formed a consortium called the
International Hydrogen Infrastructure Group to influence
Most hydrogen accidents are caused when the gas federal officials working on developing fuel cells.
escapes. A large enough number of trucks carrying "'Basically,' says Neil Rossmeissl, a hydrogen expert at
compressed hydrogen to fuel all transportation needs the Department of Energy (DOE), 'what they do is... make
would be extremely dangerous. Hydrogen gas is invisible sure we are doing what they think is the right thing.",32
— even when on fire! No detector exists that can be
accurate enough to ensure its safety.21 All of the major oil companies, Chevron-Texaco, British
Metal 'hydrides can store a larger amount of hydrogen in Petroleum, ExxonMobil, and Ford have invested money in
less volume than other methods, but to store 11 pounds of hydrogen research and promotion. 3 That amount of
h dro en takeshalmost money is not as great as the amount of profit they would
y g2pounds of equipment... very lose by not selling ICE cars run on gasoline. In the case of
heavy. Extra fuel has to,be used to move the vehicle, California, oil and auto companies lobbied the California
which cancels out any gain in efficiency. Air Resources Board to drop the Zero Emission Electric
Vehicle Mandate and then pulled electric cars from the
Hydrogen can also be "reformed" from natural gas,
ethanol, or methanol, right on board a vehicle, but the market despite demand.
equipment is too large and inefficient.23 This process also
releases CO2r and so is not really a clean option.24 Hydrogen appears clean according to promoters, but it will
require hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure, will
be generated with fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, is
Transportation less efficient than electricity, and is dangerous to store and
For hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to be a viable option for transport. We need to see it for what it is: a dirty industry
transportation, five problems would need to be solved:25 trick.
• The price of a hydrogen vehicle is $1 million, and IO Hydrogen fuel is channeled to
the anode on one side of the fuel
would cost about 50% more than internal combustion cell while oxygen from the air Hydrogen Air
engine (ICE) vehicles if mass produced.26 is channeled to the cathode on Gas (Oxygen)
the other side of the cell.
• The range of the vehicle is limited; cars can't carry jr. , 1t
enough hydrogen to go very far. ,1 ,,N ,�v,�
• Hydrogen fuel is 34 times as expensive as gas27 and ;.r " The proton
p „f,A exchange
made from dirty sources. w,'" ,,,,Pi
-. allowsrane(only eM)
• A huge, over $500 billion fueling infrastructure is ®Atthe anode,
28 a platinum catalyst `! 0wu protons to pass
needed before people will buy hydrogen cars. ',''',44 } through to the
causes the hydrogenu �il n cathode.The
• By the time those problems are solved, competing to split into posdively II IV „` Ia gal,i. electrons must
charged hydrogen 1 , :I travel along an
technologies, like hybrid and electric cars, will have g
ions(protons)and 1 �1�VI � r �i;. ,o ' vernal circuit to
taken over, making hydrogen investments risky and negatively charged e�r ��
(nused
the cathode,
obsolete. creating an
*;, a yV• j electrical currentInstead of pouring billions of dollars into fruitless research Water
for hydrogen vehicles, we should look to real solutions. drogenElectric vehicles are an existing, viable technology. CarsAnode Cathode
can be converted to electric, and in recent years electric PEM
cars were commercially available in California.29 This is a
more affordable option, with cheaper vehicles, no massive -
infrastructure to build (just plug it in!), and charging costs
for some models as cheap as 3¢/mile!30 The leftover '�~--- 0 a At the cathode,the electrons
and protons combine with
money can be used to put toward new wind or solar power oxygen to form water,which
development. There are still some issues with range and flows out of the cell.
charging time, but there are new batteries that can go 150 A typical proton-exchange membrane(PEM)hydrogen fuel cell
miles on one char e.31
[Diagram from PBS Nova ScienceNOW.]
Sarah Coppinger Footnotes online at: www.energyjustice.net/hydrogen/ 215-743-4884 2/26/2007