Compared to renewables, LNG isn’t clean or cost-effective

It’s never too late to stop a bad idea when so much is at stake. In March, Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission allowed Hawaii Gas to begin importing more liquefied natural gas. LNG proponents describe it as a “bridge fuel” useful for reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions as Hawaii transitions to our legislatively-mandated 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. This is a bridge fuel to nowhere.

Hawaii Gas describes LNG on its website as “clean,” “cost-effective,” and a “diversified fuel supply.” These are half-truths and distortions. The Legislature needs to restrict LNG imports.

LNG is not clean. It is a fossil fuel and greenhouse gas. Burning it does emit less CO2 than the imported coal and oil that currently produce over 80 percent of Hawaii’s electricity. But LNG is 85-95 percent methane, a global warming gas 84 times as potent as CO2 over a 20-year period. About 25 percent of the manmade global warming we’re experiencing today is caused by methane emissions. And the largest source of industrial methane emissions is the oil and gas industry.

No matter where it is mined, LNG hurts the environment right here by worsening climate change. It leaks at drilling sites, along pipelines, at compression stations, at storage facilities and throughout the networks of piping that carry it to homes. Washington, D.C., alone has 5,893 natural gas leaks. And transporting LNG to Hawaii burns fuel, producing even more greenhouse gases.

LNG is not cost-effective over the long term. The price of renewables like wind and solar, and battery storage, continues to plummet. The necessary infrastructure to increase LNG imports would cost $200 million by Hawaii Gas’s own estimate, and it’s already applied for a rate hike. We should not spend another penny on fossil fuel infrastructure.

The long-term cost of delaying full use of renewable energy — i.e., more rapid climate change — is already clear in our state: more and stronger hurricanes, beach loss, dying coral reefs, higher average temperatures, decreased tradewinds, periods of drought and heavy rain with flooding.

Soon to come are damage to tourism, our largest source of income; more disease; endangered fisheries; declining crop production; stressed native animals and plants; and increased spread of invasive species.

LNG is not needed to diversify Hawaii’s fuel supply. We have wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, deep sea water chilling and biomass, with ocean thermal and wave energy on the way. All we need are batteries and resolve. LNG is currently exempt from the 100 percent renewables standard Hawaii is aiming for. It’s not renewable and should just fade away as we reach for our goal.

Finally, LNG is not safe. Fracking to obtain it contributes to all manner of calamities, from breast cancer to flammable tap water to earthquakes. It’s no wonder that Vermont, New York, Maryland, several European countries and Hawaii County have all banned the practice.

The Union of Concerned Scientists’ primary recommendation concerning LNG is that: “Policy makers at all levels of government should prioritize the use of cleaner and safer strategies such as renewable energy and energy efficiency in all sectors of the economy.” UCS also finds both that continued increases in natural gas demand could result in shortages and significant price increases, and that cheap natural gas could crowd renewable energy out of the power market in the near term.

Any effort and expense to expand LNG here is far better put toward reaching our renewables goal. Increased LNG imports are a direct obstacle to that goal.

Our citizens have already rejected an LNG company, NextEra. We need to do it again, for Hawaii and for the planet. Our representatives must act.

Brodie Lockard founded the Hawaii chapter of 350.org, 350Hawaii.org, in 2014.