HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0269.026 2022-2024 P/Gounci f
Re5.
From: Shannon Rudolph
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2023 7:01 AM _
Subject: Please Oppose Reso 163 '`
Aloha Council
I' ll admit, I' m not ' up on' all of the county's latest enerr
technology ideas as I' ve been focused on the legislature for
months.
I would like to submit Cory Hardin's testimony below, 'as my
own , because for 40 years, I know she's consistently done her
homework fairly & diligently - to arrive at correct answers,
concerns & criticisms of any issue.
Mahalo!
Shannon Rudolph - Holualoa
opposition to Resolution 163
for Hawai'i County Council, 9 AM Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Kona chambers
from Cory Harden,Sierra Club, Hawai'i Island Group
It is mind-boggling that the Council is poised to pass sweeping, vaguely worded changes to County policy,
with minimal debate and less than a week's notice to the public—for the second time.
The first time was Resolution 73, which supported up-ending the entire County solid waste plan in three
short years in favor of environmentally unfriendly alternatives, and appeared to be written to benefit the
Yummet corporation.
Council is abdicating its responsibility to taxpayers if it approves the vague language in Resolution 163 to
authorize the Mayor"execute, on behalf of the County an agreement, and related documents.."
Comm. No. 21/1"2L
Ref. To: �_],l nU
1 Ref. Date aAY 3 2023
We urge that the Council focus instead on supporting distributed solar and wind energy with advanced
storage solutions (battery, pumped hydro, etc) for a sustainable, resilient power supply with minimal
dependence on shipping supplies over thousands of miles.
Has the County already made commitments without public input or Council approval?
The City of Lancaster website says it "is now adding a mentee-the County of Hawai'i".
h ttps://www.cityof(ancasterca.orq/home/showpublisheddocument/44716/6379
755513 13570000
Why the big rush?
The April 21, 2023 letter from Finance Committee Chair Matt Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder to Council
Chair Heather Kimball says "timely approval is crucial". But the Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act that funded "hubs" for low-carbon hydrogen passed two years ago.
Where's the community engagement?
"Jeremy Ortiz, a DOE [US Department of Energy] spokesman...[was] pointing out that applicants
[for hydrogen hub coalitions] were required to include a plan describing their engagements
with community and labor groups..."
https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-hydrogen-hubs-4-issues-to-watch/
"20%of the assessment of each hydrogen hub application will depend on the hub's Community
Benefits Plan (CBP)."
U.S. hydrogen hubs: What comes next?Clean Air Task Force,April 3, 2023
https://www.catfus/2023/04/us-hydroden-hubs-what-comes-next/
Will the hydrogen be environmentally friendly?The resolution does not specify green hydrogen.
Where are the customers for the hydrogen? And the infrastructure to deliver it?
Who stands to benefit from this hydrogen hub?The public, or special interests?
What about the drawbacks of hydrogen?
Hydrogen is a very small molecule; making it more likely than methane to leak. But if it does, we
are in trouble. Hydrogen molecules have a global warming potential 11 times greater than carbon
dioxide. ..It's volatile and flammable, even more so than fracked gas. Hydrogen pipelines have.
already caused explosions, posing major dangers to communities near that infrastructure.
Moreover, hydrogen is currently stored as ammonia, a hazardous chemical that can cause death
in high concentrations.
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.orq/2022/10/24/the-dirty-side-o f-green-hydrogen/
"...hydrogen itself does not produce energy; it is a carrier, and stores energy like a battery.
Pure hydrogen is not found in nature, so energy has to be used to separate hydrogen from the
other substances it is stored in...
hydrogen is largely made from dirty energy...
Biofuels, like ethanol, are another way to make hydrogen. But there are plenty of fossil fuel
inputs in biofuel production: feedstock crops use natural gas-based fertilizer, energy-intensive
farm machinery, and in the case of ethanol plants, are powered by mini coal and gas plants. Even
if ethanol production were somehow clean, it is adding another inefficient process into the
inefficient process of making hydrogen. It would make more sense powering cars directly...
[you can] produce hydrogen by splitting water with wind and solar generated electricity.
However,this wastes 4 times the amount of electricity that the hydrogen will actually yield...
2
Hydrogen has to be concentrated for use in transportation: either liquefied, compressed,or
stored in a metal hydride. Hydrogen molecules are extremely tiny and will leak from almost any
container or pipe...
it takes 3,000 times more space to store the same amount of energy as gasoline. It can only be
liquefied at temperatures near absolute zero...The liquefying process uses 40%of the energy in
the hydrogen with a product that only contains 1/4 the energy of gasoline by volume."
FACT SHEET:Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, Energy Justice
Network, https://www.energyjustice.net/files/hydrogen/factsheet-hydrogen.pdf
While industry touts hydrogen as a "clean" solution,globally only 0.02 percent of current
hydrogen production is green...
Electric vehicle options are available, more efficient, and cheaper to purchase and operate than
hydrogen vehicles...
There are some ways in which green hydrogen use could be part of getting to zero emissions
economy-wide, but they are likely most appropriate for hard-to-decarbonize sectors, like long-
haul freight trucking. Green hydrogen has the potential to help store intermittent renewable
energy; be converted to a "zero-emissions"fuel for maritime shipping and aviation; be used in
high-heat industrial processes that cannot otherwise be electrified; or, be used as a feedstock in
some industrial processes, like steel production...
It is always more efficient to use renewable power directly than to convert renewable energy to
hydrogen for use as an energy source...
When hydrogen is combusted, it does not produce carbon emissions, but it does produce NOx
emissions up to six times worse than those released by methane combustion. ..
Steel is susceptible to "hydrogen embrittlement," which is the loss of strength of the metal due
to hydrogen entering into tiny spaces in the metal, causing the [transmission] pipe to crack...
...current leak detection systems are designed for gas, not hydrogen, and would have to be
upgraded to detect hydrogen, a colorless,tasteless, odorless gas. ..
h ttps;//www.sierraclub.orq/articles/2022/01/hydrogen-future-clean-energy-or-false-solution
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. —Anne Frank
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