Testimony of Sherry Pollack re Gas Company Rate Hike (2018)

TESTIMONY OF SHERRY POLLACK (JP-T-2)

I am Sherry Pollack, Vice President, Community Organizing and Action at 350 Hawai'i. The references are attached as Joint Participant Exhibits 101-118. Exhibit 118 is my resume.  350 Hawai'i members are residents of the planet. People everywhere are affected by greenhouse gas emissions released anywhere. We are professors, activists, professionals, students and retirees in Hawai'i doing what we can to fight climate change in our piece of the world.

Climate change - What's the issue?

The debate is over. Scientists agree - an overload of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity is causing global warming and climate change.[i] The danger lies in the dirty fossil fuels we bum for energy — coal, oil, and gas — which release heat-trapping gases into the air, that then build up in the atmosphere. These are the main culprits that are ramping up the greenhouse effect.

The ‘greenhouse effect’ is the warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth towards space. Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Methane. Rising sea levels, shrinking glaciers, accelerating ice melt in Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic, extreme weather events including longer, more intense heat waves and hurricane-associated storm intensity, ocean acidification, these are all consequences of the warming.[ii]

Human activity has already increased carbon dioxide concentrations by more than 40% from 280 to more than 400 parts per million since the industrial revolution began. Before this, for hundreds of thousands of years, the level stayed between 180 and 300 parts per million. The monthly average concentration at Mauna Loa now exceeds 400 ppm for the first time in human history. The current CO2 level is higher than it has been in at least 800,000 years.[iii]

Only 2012 and 2016 were warmer than 2017, according a report from NO AA. The five hottest years on record in the country have been in the last decade, based on 123 years of recordkeeping. In 2017, every state had a warmer-than-average year, and 32 recorded one of their 10 hottest years on record, according to NOAA.[iv] This trend is at a rate that is unprecedented and has led to a call to action from scientists worldwide warning us that the time to take bold action on greenhouse emissions is now. [v]

So what does Climate Change mean for Hawai'i? According to the EPA, “Warming in the oceans around Hawai'i has damaged coral reefs, and, in recent decades, increased ocean acidity has threatened reefs and other marine ecosystems. Warming and acidification could result in widespread damage to the entire marine ecosystem in the waters off Hawai'i.”

The EPA further notes “Average precipitation decreased in the last century, reducing freshwater availability on some islands and affecting delicate land-based ecosystems, often harming native species. The Hawaiian Islands have experienced a reduction in flow over the last century, resulting in less fresh water available for people and ecosystems. Additionally, increased drought may threaten taro and breadfruit, which are important traditional food sources for Hawai'i’s native peoples.”

Most notably, is the evidence and impacts of sea level rise. The EPA reports “In the last 50 years, sea level has risen along Hawai'i’s shores, increasing erosion and threatening coastal communities and infrastructure. Sea level rise and the associated coastal impacts due to increased flooding, elevated groundwater tables, storm surge, and erosion have the potential to harm an array of natural and built environments in Hawai'i. Dying coral reefs add to this problem, as they leave the shoreline more vulnerable to erosion and damage from waves. In the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, sea level rise threatens native species, especially those that nest on beaches, such as green sea turtles, Hawaiian monk seals, and the endangered Laysan Finch. Damage to coastal infrastructure may also hurt Hawai'i’s economy, more than a quarter of which stems from tourism. Waikiki Beach alone brings in $2 billion per year in visitor spending, furthermore, many of Hawai'i’s native communities are in vulnerable coastal areas. Sea level rise and associated flooding are expected to destroy land, coastal artifacts, and structures of significant cultural value, and may force these communities to relocate.”

The report also addressed adverse impacts to public health. As stated, “Climate change is likely to amplify some threats to health in Hawai'i. Certain people are especially vulnerable, including children, the elderly, the sick, and the poor.”[vi]

It’s obvious that as an island state, we have much to lose with global warming. Actions that lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, no matter where they occur, impact the climate on a global level, and therefore have direct negative consequences for Hawai'i.

That’s why it’s imperative we reduce greenhouse gas emission now. Hawai'i needs to and should be a leader in this effort as we have so much to lose. Working to reduce our dependence on dirty fossil fuel energy sources and expanding low-climate impact renewable energy to limit greenhouse gas pollution should be our top priority.

It should be, but it’s not. Polluters and their allies continue to deny the reality of climate change and spread lies about climate solutions. Industry leaders have hindered action and have spread dangerous myths about climate change and the impacts of fossil fuels. In the meantime, emissions are still rising, adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Across the country the fossil fuel industry is fast-tracking the building of pipelines and export facilities that will contribute to increased fossil fuel use around the world, ensuring further increases in emissions during this critical period when we should be dramatically decreasing greenhouse gas production. They know that once infrastructure is in place, it becomes difficult and expensive to change course - a term some have labeled “technological momentum.”

Moreover, opponents of climate action give nearly $1billion/year to organizations that block actions to protect the climate and promote disinformation about climate science and solutions.[vii] An example of the fossil fuel industry’s deliberate misinformation campaign which is used to undermine community efforts to move to renewable energies, is their labeling of natural gas as a ‘clean burning fuel.’

The truth is natural gas is a potent greenhouse gas that some scientists say could push the climate over a tipping point in the next 18-25 years, causing runaway global warming. The drilling and extraction of natural gas from wells and its transportation in pipelines results in the leakage of methane, the primary component of natural gas that is 34 times stronger than C02 at trapping heat over a 100-year period and 86 times stronger over 20 years.[viii]

Yet law and policy makers continue to accept industry propaganda that natural gas in a ‘clean burning bridge fuel’ despite the evidence. The fact is natural gas in not a bridge to anything. It is a road to climate change. Period. Until policy makers understand that no credible plan to combat climate change can ignore methane emissions, we will continue to “fuel” the climate crisis. Therefore, overcoming this deception campaign is paramount.

Furthermore, companies must be held responsible for their emissions and the damage caused by climate change. With greenhouse gas emissions at a record high, it is critical for policy makers to consider an accurate accounting of the full sources and levels of greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, experts state that the full lifecycle of greenhouse gas emissions must no longer be ignored. A life-cycle perspective accounts for all emissions connected to the good or service.[ix]

This consumption-based approach accounts for emissions at the point of consumption, attributing all the emissions that occurred in the course of production and distribution to the final consumers of goods and services. This more accurate picture can better inform policy makers and stake holders when evaluating the impacts of proposed projects that could potentially pose harm to the climate. In short, if we ignore the full lifecycle of the emissions, we undermine our efforts and are doomed to failure.

Why is it important?

The repercussions from the absence of action on climate and what that looks like for Hawai'i are emerging more and more clearly. Climate change is a global problem that is being caused or could be solved by our collective actions. Because we all share the same atmosphere, greenhouse gas emissions produced anywhere, even in a country on the other side of the planet, will destabilize the climate, and as a result, still cause harm to us here locally. Understanding that critical fact and taking the necessary actions to address this problem is crucial, lest we continue to doom our collective future.

According to the Climate Science Special Report of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the global annually averaged surface air temperature is now the warmest in the history of modem civilization. The last few years have also seen record-breaking, climate-related weather extremes, and the last three years have been the warmest years on record for the globe. These trends are expected to continue. The report states that researchers around the world have documented changes in surface, atmospheric, and oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; diminishing snow cover; shrinking sea ice; rising sea levels; ocean acidification; and increasing atmospheric water vapor.[x]

In the 2014 National Climate Assessment report, it was noted that in Hawai'i, freshwater supplies are already constrained and will become more limited on the islands. Saltwater intrusion associated with sea level rise will reduce the quantity and quality of freshwater in coastal aquifers. In areas where precipitation does not increase, freshwater supplies will be adversely affected as air temperature rises. Increased temperatures coupled with decreased rainfall and increased drought will reduce the amount of freshwater available for drinking and crop irrigation.[xi]

It is of no surprise that rising sea levels are of particular concern to Hawai'i. According to the Climate Science Special Report, “Global average sea level has risen by about 7-8 inches since 1900, with almost half (about 3 inches) of that rise occurring since 1993. Human-caused climate change has made a substantial contribution to this rise since 1900, contributing to a rate of rise that is greater than during any preceding century in at least 2,800 years.[xii]

The report outlines how global sea level rise has already affected many parts of the United States, with the incidence of daily tidal flooding accelerating in more than 25 Atlantic and Gulf Coast cities and is expected to continue to rise—by at least several inches in the next 15 years and by 1-4 feet by 2100. A rise of as much as 8 feet by 2100 is not ruled out.[xiii] Hawai'i’s Sea level Rise Vulnerability and Adaption Report released in December 2017 sited projections of a 3.2 feet of global sea level rise that could occur as early as year 2060 under more recently published highest-end scenarios.[xiv]

Hawai'i is extremely vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise and is already experiencing chronic coastal flooding with sea level rise due to passive flooding, annual high wave flooding, and coastal erosion. According to the National Climate Assessment report, sea level rise will incrementally damage coastal ecosystems, coastal structures and properties, infrastructure, groundwater reservoirs, wastewater systems, and agriculture, and negatively affect tourism. The report further outlined the economic impacts from tourism loss, stating it will be greatest on islands with more developed infrastructure. In Hawai'i, where tourism comprises 26% of the state’s economy, damage to tourism infrastructure could have large economic impacts.[xv]

Other global warming effects outlined in the Climate Science report include changes in the characteristics of extreme weather events (heavy rainfall increasing in intensity and frequency, heatwaves becoming more frequent), and adverse impacts to infrastructure, agriculture, water quality and quantity, and natural ecosystems, as was also noted in the Climate Assessment report.[xvi] In Hawai`i we are becoming uncomfortably familiar with what is meant by the term “extreme weather.” One example that illustrates this condition occurred in 2015 when the Central Pacific saw a historic number of tropical cyclones, with 15 named storms, eight hurricanes, and five major hurricanes, making 2015 the most active season since reliable record-keeping began in 1970.[xvii]

Because Hawai'i is almost entirely dependent upon imported food, fuel, and material, the vulnerability of ports and airports to extreme events, sea level rise, and increasing wave heights is of great concern. In addition, sea level rise and flooding are expected to overwhelm sewer systems and threaten public sanitation.[xviii]

Experts state the magnitude of climate change beyond the next few decades will depend primarily on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted globally. The global atmospheric carbon dioxide (C02) concentration has now passed 400 parts per million (ppm), a level that last occurred about 3 million years ago, when both global average temperature and sea level were significantly higher than today. Continued growth in C02 emissions over this century and beyond would lead to an atmospheric concentration not experienced in tens to hundreds of millions of years.[xix]

What's the urgency?

While policy makers and regulatory entities debate business models and raise concerns over profitability, signs that we are heading into climate chaos are growing all around us at an alarming rate. It is more and more clear that our planet is dying and unless we take bold action now to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions our world is doomed, and even sooner than what has originally been predicted.

A particularly unsettling manifestation of global warming is the dwindling of Arctic sea ice, which is beginning to melt at an alarming rate. What has been dubbed in the news media recently as “freakishly warm” Arctic weather in February, has scientists now reconsidering worst-case scenarios on climate change. As of March 1, 2018, temperatures at the North Pole have surged above freezing, even though the sun set last October and won’t rise again until later this month. On the northern tip of Greenland, a meteorological site has logged an unprecedented 61 hours of temperatures above freezing so far in 2018.[xx] CNN reported data from Cape Morris Jessup, the world's northernmost land-based weather station, that show that temperatures from February in eastern Greenland and the central Arctic are averaging about 15°C (27°F) warmer than seasonal norms for an Arctic winter.[xxi] According to NASA, the Arctic Ocean is expected to become essentially ice-free in the summer before mid-century.[xxii]

Why should we care? Besides the fact that this region is home to unique and complex ecosystems, as well as millions of people whose cultures and way of life are at risk, the Arctic plays a key role in regulating the world’s climate, and destabilizing it has profound consequences for all of us.[xxiii]

Scientists predicted that we would not see such extreme ice losses until the middle of the twenty-first century and say this is a wake-up call that we have basically run out of time. They say, however, that there’s still a chance that the world could prevent the total loss of summer Arctic sea ice. Global climate models suggest that about 3 million square kilometers—^roughly half of the minimum summer coverage in recent decades—could survive if countries fulfill their commitments to the ratified Paris climate agreement, which limits global warming to 2 °C above pre-industrial temperatures.[xxiv]

These unprecedented, dramatic climate events are challenging the limits of scientific understanding of our climate system. We have now moved to truly uncharted territory. Bottom- line, we need to stop greenhouse gas emissions before its too late, for the sake of the Arctic sea ice and for everything that depends on the stability of the climate for their life support system... i.e. every living thing on the planet Earth.

Our children and grandchildren will look back on the climate deniers and ask how they could have ignored the obvious signs and sacrificed the planet for the sake of cheap fossil fuel energy, when the cost of inaction exceeds the cost of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. The future for our children— their climate, their world, and how livable it is, will be shaped by our action or inaction, and the energy choices our generation makes- and those choices are abundantly clear. Fighting climate change by cutting greenhouse gases and expanding clean energy is the only way to pass on a better future for them.

What could possibly go wrong?

There is broad consensus that the further and the faster the Earth system is pushed towards warming, the greater the risk of unanticipated changes and impacts, some of which are potentially large and irreversible.[xxv]

Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, global warming would continue to happen because greenhouse gases linger in the atmosphere for many years, so there is a time lag before the effects of what we do now will result in impacts to the climate. In the absence of urgent, deep cuts to emissions, global temperature is on track to continue to rise at a rate that some experts say could push us to the ‘tipping point’.[xxvi] These underscores even more the urgency for immediate and bold action that would result in a major reduction in emissions.

But efforts to make that transition are under attack and are being critically undermined. The fossil fuel industry and their allies have spent the past 20 years attacking environmentalists and climate scientists, and labeling them as extremists, alarmists, and hysterics.

Today, many of the greenhouse gas producers from the fossil fuel industry continue to profit from these polluting fuels that are destroying our planet. Emissions are still rising, adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Governments and fossil fuel companies are still planning more massive fossil fuel projects, aggressively pushing for our continued dependence of coal, oil and gas, spreading misinformation and doubt about the science of global warming, and even resorting to the use of mercenary tactics to prevent citizen opposition to their environmentally destructive projects.

This is happening when urgent, deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions are needed now more than ever and could take us to a point where it is impossible to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

If regulatory entities remain passive to this corporate exploitation and fail to take a supportive role in steps to facilitate the urgent leap to 100% clean, non-climate harming renewable energy, we are surely headed for climate chaos. Our future depends on what we do today while there is still a chance to turn things around for the better.

JOINT PARTICIPANT EXHIBITS

101 Scientific consensus: Earth's climate is warming, NASA Global Climate

Change: Vital Signs of the Planet 

102     Climate Change Science by EPA

103     2017 Was the Third Hottest Year on Record for the U.S.: Only 2012 and 2016 were warmer than last year By Scott Waldman, Climate Wire on January 9, 2018

104     Scientists Agree: Global Warming is Happening and Humans are the Primary Cause 

105     What Climate Change Means for Hawaii. August 2016. EPA 430-E-16-013

106     Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation ofU.S. climate change counter-movement organizations by Robert J. Brulle December 2013.

Climatic Change. February 2014, Volume 122, Issue 4, pp 681-694

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[i] Scientific consensus: Earth's climate is warming, NASA Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/ JP-EXH-101

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Climate Change Science by EPA

https://archive.epa. gov/epa/climate-change-science/causes-climate-change.html JP-EXH-102

[iv] 2017 Was the Third Hottest Year on Record for the U.S.: Only 2012 and 2016 were warmer than last year By Scott Waldman, ClimateWire on January 9, 2018

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/2017-was-the-third-hottest-year-on-record-for-the-u-

s/  JP-EXH-103

[v] Scientists Agree: Global Warming is Happening and Humans are the Primary Cause https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/scientists-agree-global-warming-happening-humans-primarv-cause#.Wpu4W-iwbIU JP-EXH-104

[vi] What Climate Change Means for Hawaii. August 2016. EPA 430-F-16-013 https ://l 9i anuarv2017snapshot.epa.gov/sites/production/Files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-hi.pdf JP-EXH-105

[vii] Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change countermovement organizations by Robert J. Brulle December 2013. Climatic Change. February 2014, Volume 122, Issue 4, pp 681-694 https://link.springer.eom/article/10.1007%2Fsl0584-013- 1018-7 JP-EXH-106

[viii] Anthropogenic and natural radiative forcing by G Myhre et al. In Climate change 2013: The physical science basis: Contribution of Working Group I to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by T.F. Stocker et al climatechange2013.org/images/report/WGlAR5_Chapter08_FINAL.pdf JP-EXH-107

[ix] Life-Cycle GHG Accounting Versus GHG Emission Inventories, EPA 2016 https://www.epa.gOv/sites/production/files/2016-03/documents/life-cvcle-ghg-accounting-versus-ghg-emission-inventories 10-28-10.pdf JP-EXH-108

[x] Highlights of the Findings of the U.S. Global Change Research Program Climate Science Special Report by DJ Wuebbles et al, U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, https://science2017.globalchange. gov/chapter/executive-summary/ JP-EXH-109

[xi] 2014 National Climate Assessment. U.S. Global Change Research Program https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/highlights/regions/hawaii JP-EXH-110

[xii] JP-EXH-109

[xiii] JP-EXH-109

[xiv] JP-EXH-111

[xv] JP-EXH-110

[xvi] JP-EXH-109

[xvii] Hawaii Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report. Hawaii Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission. 2017. Prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc. and the State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, under the State of Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources Contract No: 64064. https://climateadaptation.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/SLR-Report Dec2017.pdf JP-EXH-111

[xviii] JP-EXH-110

[xix] JP-EXH-109

[xx] “Freakishly Warm” Arctic Weather Has Scientists Reconsidering Worst-Case Scenarios on Climate Change

https://www.democracvnow.Org/2018/3/l/freakishly warm arctic weather has scientists JP-EXH-112

[xxi] Arctic temperatures surge in the dead of winter By Kara Fox and Brandon Miller, CNN (February 27, 2018) https://www.cnn.eom/2018/02/27/weather/arctic-temperatures-record-high-intl/index.html JP-EXH-113

[xxii] The consequences of climate change by NASA Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/ JP-EXH-114

[xxiii] Arctic — why should I care? (2010) European Environment Agency (EEA) https://www.eea.europa.eu/signals/signals-2010/arctic JP-EXH-115

[xxiv] Arctic 2.0: What Happens after All the Ice Goes? Researchers look into the future of the far North for clues to save species and maybe even bring back sea ice. By Julia Rosen, Nature magazine on February 9, 2017 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/arctic-2-Q-what-happens-after-all-the-ice-goes/ JP-EXH-116

[xxv] Anthropogenic and Natural Radiative Forcing by G Myhre et al. In Climate change 2013: The physical science basis: Contribution of Working Group I to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by T.F. Stocker et al climatechange2013 .org/images/report/WGl AR5_Chapter08_FINAL.pdf JP-EXH-117

[xxvi] JP-EXH-117