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The Maui News November 12, 2008  

Study: Maui's emissions top rate of growth 'Global Warming Solutions Act' will require reductions to 1990 levels HONOLULU -

A 2007 state law requiring limits on businesses, systems and devices that produce greenhouse gases may have its heaviest impact on the Maui, which is estimated to have the largest increase in production of greenhouse gases since 1990.

The law, Hawaii Revised Statutes 342B or Act 234, will allow the state health director to impose fees on emitters of greenhouse gases, with a goal of getting emissions in the state down to 1990 levels by 2020. As a first step, the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism must determine what the levels of greenhouse gases are now and what they were in 1990.  The inventory of the gases is referred to as GHG for greenhouses gases, but primarily carbon dioxide.

Maui is likely to be the most affected island because preliminary figures show an 81 percent increase in GHG emissions took place on the Valley Isle, well ahead of the other Neighbor Islands. GHG are measured in the equivalent in carbon dioxide. DBEDT calculates that total emissions rose only slightly from 1990 to 2007 - from 19.77 million metric tons of carbon dioxide or equivalent gases to 20.40 mmt. Oahu output dropped from 18.12 million metric tons in 1990 to 16.39 mmt in 2007. The Neighbor Islands all rose, and Maui County surpassed the more populous Big Island. The estimates of the changes from 1990 to 2007 are Hawaii County, from 2.02 mmt to 2.78 mmt; Maui County from 1.60 mmt to 2.88 mmt (Maui island from 1.45 mmt to 2.63 mmt); and Kauai 0.69 mmt to 1.10 mmt.

Not surprisingly, the largest source of GHG is transportation, although emissions levels are down from 12.53 mmt in 1990 to 11.5 mmt in 2007. Emissions from electric power generation are up, from 6.89 mmt in 1990 to 7.36 mmt in 2007, according to the draft report. Maui island's growth in emissions were from energy uses, including transportation and electric power, from 1.22 mmt in 1990 to 2.3 mmt in 2007; from waste handling, including landfills and wastewater treatment, from 0.05 mmt to 0.13 mmt; and form industrial processing, from 0.01 mmt to 0.07 mmt.

At Thursday's hearing at the Capitol, there will be presentations on the law's provisions for monitoring, a permitting system and penalties to be imposed on producers of GHG, including autos. Act 234 establishes a GHG emissions reductions task force that will propose regulations for "the maximum practically and technically feasible and cost-effective reductions." The law specifies that "cost-effective" means least cost per unit of gas eliminated, not other costs. The task force will have 10 members, only four of whom will be from "affected business sectors," which are electric utilities, refineries, ground transportation and maritime business. The regulatory plan must be submitted by Dec. 31, 2009. These will include "all verifiable and enforceable voluntary actions" and "market-based compliance mechanisms," with mandatory emissions reporting.

Although the statute does not use the words "cap-and-trade," that is what it means. Sources that want to emit gases would have to compete with each other to buy rights. The law also calls for a "schedule of fees to be paid by the sources," apparently a penalty for excessive emissions that will go into a Clean Air Special Fund. The proposals are to be debated in the 2010 Legislature and by the end of 2011 the health director will adopt rules to implement the law. Mandatory reporting is to begin in 2012. The Legislature appropriated $1 million for administering the act in the current and next fiscal years. For information on the program, including a copy of the draft report, go to hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/energy/greenhouse/.