City's Building Energy Code Update Awaiting Reschedule
On July 25th Honolulu City Council's Committee on Zoning, Planning and Housing deferred Bill 25, to modernize Honolulu’s building energy code. The measure proposed cost-effective changes that would help to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our new homes and buildings while helping to foster our transition to clean transportation. The bill was drafted by the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency (OCCSR) and is consistent with a number of action items in the community-supported Oʻahu Resilience Strategy.
Although there was overwhelming written and oral testimony in support of Bill 25, with some amendments. However, there were concerns of “consumer choice” and “job loss” related to the solar water heaters (SWH) presented by Hawaii Gas and their employees. The OCCSR was able to directly dispel these concerns by citing the options for alternatives to SWH and no current job loss since the bill only affects new construction. Nonetheless, Bill 25 was deferred and Chair Menor assured it will come back in August to allow for further discussion.
Sierra Club as well as a cohort of other environmental organizations are continuing to work to get the bill moves forward with the EV-ready provision of Bill 25 amended to require capacity for 100% Level 2 charging (instead of only Level 1) for new building construction—a requirement that the city of Vancouver already has on the books. See our full testimony here (attachment inserted?)
Because we believe in an equitable transition to a carbon free economy, we want to encourage the city council to act with urgency when it comes to the climate change crisis and put pressure on Hawaiʻi Gas to evolve. They can move away from imported fracked gas and start using renewable gas from local sources to create the green jobs we desperately need. But for now, Hawaiʻi Gas is choosing to continue business as usual and threaten our collective future. We cannot let that happen and will be sending out action alerts for more community support when the next hearing is announced!