 Hello, and welcome to Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable, and just energy future. I am your host, Raya Salter. I'm an energy attorney, clean energy advocate, and community outreach specialist. I'm also the principal attorney of Imagine Power LLC. Today we're going to take a look at some important energy and utility news from Hawaii around the country and the world, as reported in the last week. We will start this morning's reporting, or this afternoon's reporting, ah, we will start with this morning's reporting from Utility Dive, one of the most up-to-date sources I'd like to bring you guys information from Utility Dive. So UNICOS has signed an agreement with the Kodiak Electric Association, or KEA, in Alaska to upgrade a 3 megawatt battery energy storage system on the island. KEA in 2007 set a goal of producing 95% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 in order to reduce its reliance on diesel fuel and lower energy costs for customers. So in 2014, the utility met and surpassed that goal, generating 99.7% of its energy from renewables, and a total of 14% of the total comes from wind power, with the rest coming from KEA's Terror Lake Hydro Power Plant. As quoted by a utility executive there, we realized early on that battery storage is the best solution to help us achieve these goals, and that UNICOS is a company with the right technology and expertise, as well as a passion for clean energy and affordable energy. Darren Scott, president and CEO of KEA, said in the statement. So battery energy storage is catching on quickly in island economies, which often endure high power prices because we must import fuel to use to burn in conventional power plants. So I'm always going to bring you stories about storage and renewable energy on islands that are looking to make that transition away from fossil fuel. Here is another example. Alaska is another place, extremely high energy costs, well, sometimes extremely high energy costs on parts of Alaska. They have oil and people in the community actually receive a subsidy. But transporting oil, especially for island economies, is a tremendous challenge. So it's something that we always want to keep our eye on. What is the value in battery storage? What is the value of battery storage plus renewables? And we shall see as islands seek to turn 100% renewables as we do here in Hawaii by 2045. Moving on to a story about Kauai. Actually, I think this is a continuation. In 2015, the Kauai Island Energy Cooperative in Hawaii signed a power purchase agreement for the first fully dispatchable solar plus storage system in the nation. And earlier this year signed another similar PPA for nearly 30% less than the 2015 deal. So that was in the story itself, it was contrasting the deal that's happening on this island in Alaska to what's happening in Kauai. I think another just really important point as we seek to make that transition away from fossil fuel is really the importance, the economic imperative of lowering costs for customers. I think it's extremely important that we do not have clean and renewable energy at any cost. Customers especially low income customers really need relief from high energy prices especially in Hawaii, some of the highest energy poverty in the entire country and especially islands that includes islands in Hawaii, islands in the rest of the United States and the territories like American Samoa, islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean. So moving along to what is extremely disheartening frankly news from the Trump administration. So an early budget document from President Trump would slash funding at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by about 25% according to media reports and would consider laying off about 20% of the agency's workforce. The reductions would reportedly not affect EPA grants to state, local and tribal governments which account for about 40% of the agency's budget meaning deeper cuts could be in store for the EPA's enforcement efforts Bloomberg reports. Environmentalists say they do not believe the EPA would be able to deliver on its core mission of protecting the nation's air, water and health under the proposed budget reductions. So this is something that's not a surprise. President Trump campaigned on ending the EPA slashing the Environmental Protection Agency and I think it's important and this is a bit of editorializing as somebody who is a clean energy and environmental advocate to remember what some of the EPA's core function is. I feel that the EPA has been politicized and climate science and climate has been politicized in large part due to the concept of a war on coal, of a war on coal jobs but I think it's really important that everyone remember that the Environmental Protection Agency is much more than regulating carbon emissions as we know. These are the folks that enforce our laws that are designed to protect our air, our water, our lands and many other areas. So it is while some may have a point about sometimes regulations can have unintended consequences, sometimes regulations can be frustrating to business or environmental interests. Simply ending the EPA for ending the EPA's sake I think is a terrible mistake. I think we've already seen across the country a lot of places take for the water situation that happened in Detroit, Michigan where lead is still there and is still poisoning a lot of the populace. It's important to protect our water and our air to retain our health. And I guess the last thing I'll say is I think many of us remember, I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 70s it was a smog filled place, Los Angeles, a smog filled place, New York City, a smog filled place, smog pollution, you know, co-pollutants from steel from coal and it was regulation of an understanding how to tackle these issues that cleaned up the air and improved livability and many of our most important and fun to visit areas. So I just wanted to say my piece about the Environmental Protection Agency. Let's hope that the agency is still able to carry out its vitally important duties going forward. Now it is also, it's also in the news that some top Republican appropriators aren't embracing a plan to slash federal spending for the US EPA, the one that we just talked about that President Trump is outlining and due to outline tonight in his address to Congress. The White House yesterday previewed Trump's spending plans, which would make deep cuts in fiscal 2018 for most federal programs not tied to national security. So as we spoke before, EPA could see its $8.1 billion annual budget cut by nearly a quarter. This was reported by E&E News yesterday. The plan is to increase defense spending and as quoted by an official, this defense spending increase will be offset and paid for by finding greater savings and efficiencies across the federal government. We're going to do more with less, Trump said yesterday in a speech to the National Governors Association. So these proposed cuts are part of a broader Trump administration move to scale back environmental protections established by the Obama administration. For example, Trump is planning to issue an order today that would begin to dismantle Obama's clean water rule. So the President has said he would offer more details about the plan in his speech this evening in advance of a budget outline due to Congress on March 16th. Senior House and Senate appropriators, however, were non-committal and unskeptical about the cuts that reduce EPA spending by $2 billion. Appropriators' support is crucial as they'll write the fiscal 2018 spending bills that carry out any potential funding reductions. If they are not on board, it would be almost impossible to have the spending bills with EPA cuts move in either chamber. So this is very interesting and is outlying another issue that is happening, again, a bit of editorializing according to bill budget previews. President Trump wants to make very large investments in defense spending, and he, in his words, wants to pay for them or help alleviate those increases in the budget by slashing other domestic programs. So it's important to note that programs like the Environmental Protection Agency, like the National Endowments for the Arts and other programs really have represented just a fraction of both the federal budget and a fraction of the defense budget and these defense increases. So while they do shave away at the tab, it's important to note that the significance of what they can contribute to budget cuts is pretty low. So moving on to more conservative moves in the states about clean energy. A Republican lawmaker in Georgia has introduced a bill that would restrict the state's utility regulators for making changes to energy resource decisions in the integrated resource plans filed by power companies every three years. So this is being done via House Bill 479, as proposed by Representative Don Parsons, a Republican. And it has alarm solar advocates who say it will likely lead to less renewable energy on the system. The Southern Environmental Law Center also agrees, one of their attorneys, Kurt Ebersbach, warned that stripping the commission's authority would have disastrous consequences for customers. The state's growing solar resources have already saved customers of one billion, he said. So this is very interesting. This is also something that's worth talking a little bit about. Integrated resource planning, which is not necessarily required in every state and has had a checkered history at times in various jurisdictions when it was required, yet and still is, I think, can just be compared to an important moment when a state really tries to look at all of the resources under its control to see what will the energy mix look like? Where are we going to get our power? It's sort of one of the best opportunities to take a holistic look at the energy system. And while that is something, as an advocate, I think that I have said many times. I've said it here in Hawaii. I've said it in New York. We've said it in California. And we need to make room under umbrellas of IRP-like processes to think about as much when we take that opportunity to do some macro thinking in terms of where are our subsidies? No energy market wants to see a subsidy. But what is a subsidy? What type of wealth transfers are happening? What are some of the ways that we can create efficiencies in the energy system by looking at everything at one time? And then when you do that, how can you decide what crucial elements are missing? And this is something that's happening here now with the HECO Power Supply Improvement Plan. It's not an official IRP process, but it is a regulatory proceeding that is looking to take a long view on how our utility is going to supply power to us in the near and midterm future. So this is a very interesting approach, stripping an agency's ability to review one particular type of docket or proceeding or area under its authority. We'll talk a little bit more about that when we come back. We're going to take a break, and then we will have more from Clean Energy News and Power of Hawaii. Thank you so much. Hi, I'm Tim Appachella. I'm the host for Moving Hawaii Forward. And this show is dedicated to transportation and traffic issues in Oahu. We are all frustrated by sitting in our cars in bumper-to-bumper traffic. And this show is dedicated to talking with folks that not only we can define the problem, but we hopefully can come to the table with some solutions. So I invite you to join me every Tuesday at 12 noon. And let's move Hawaii forward. Looking to energize your Friday afternoon? Tune in to Stand the Energyman at 12 noon. Aloha, Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. Hello, I'm Marianne Sasaki. Welcome to Think Tech Hawaii, where some of the most interesting conversations in Honolulu go on. I have a show on Wednesdays from one to two called Life in the Law, where we discuss legal issues, politics, governmental topics, and a whole host of issues. I hope you'll join me. Hello, and welcome back to Power of Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable, and just energy future. I am your host, Raya Salter, clean energy attorney, clean energy advocate, and community outreach specialist. So before we went to the break, we were talking about a move in Georgia to have that the governor would like to strip the commission and the regulators for being able to regulate a certain type of utility planning process. It's an interesting move. I also, a bit question what the, it'll be interesting to see what the legality of such a move is. I haven't looked deeply into the statutes in that jurisdiction. But most of the public utility regulators really have a duty to look at the, to look at the, to regulate the utility in the public interest and make sure that there are just and reasonable rates and that the utility gets a fair return on its investments. And it's unclear if stripping a commission of the power to look at such a big utility plan would be something that could just sort of be carved out of that authority. So let's, we'll see what's going to happen there. I think that's super interesting. So next, another extremely important issue for people who care about climate change. So according to a recent study, repealing the clean power plan would have significant impacts on the United States economy and the health of its citizens, according to a new analysis from Energy Innovation, a clean energy think tank. Now, rolling back the carbon rule would lead to 100 billion in extra costs by 2030, rising to 600 billion by 2050, according to the organization's power sector modeling tool. And the resulting impacts to air quality would lead to more than 40,000 premature deaths in 2030 and 120,000 in 2050. Now, President Trump campaigned on rolling back regulations, focusing on energy production and undoing the clean power plan. He's now installed former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and is preparing a budget that is expected to slash the agency's finances and resources. So this is interesting and important. Energy Innovation is a, it's a group of super smart folks. It's not necessarily a completely non-partisan group. It's certainly a group that is looking to see the transition away from fossil fuel. However, I think the discussion about what will it mean for the United States to abandon the clean power plan is very important. So what is the clean power plan? Again, that were Obama era rules that really sought to regulate the power sector and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now, I do believe that the clean power plan is what allowed for President Obama to go to Paris and make the pact in the landmark Paris agreement because he was able to say the United States has a mechanism for controlling carbon. And unless the United States has a mechanism, it was hard to see how some of the other players were gonna come to the table. So I think that regardless of what happens going forward to the rule being scrapped, we have, we can be happy about what the clean power plan has done so far. However, it is important to note that regulating carbon, really reducing carbon and the co-pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions and the co-pollutants that come with them is critically important both to climate and to human health. And in fact, I think here in Hawaii, we don't talk enough about what carbon emissions do to human health, particularly in concentrated urban areas like Honolulu. So according to some statistics, it is going to cost us a lot of money to scrap these rules. And again, I think it's regrettable that the rules are going to be scrapped. And we will need to see going forward what happens because I think that it's critical to note that despite the fact that we want to scrap these rules, coal's not coming back. And as the next story notes, the United States added 15 gigawatts of capacity to the nation's power grid last year with wind and solar making up most of the new utility scale power plants. So this was the largest addition since 2011 and followed a four gigawatt decline in generating capacity in 2015. Additions last year included 8.7 gigawatts of wind capacity, 7.7 gigawatts of solar, and nine gigawatts of natural gas. So the new projects offset 12 gigawatts of capacity retirements. Coal additions have been less than one gigawatt in each of the last four years. The first nuclear plant to come on since 1996, Watts Bar Unit 2 added one gigawatt of capacity in 2016. So I think this is part of the continuing trend and I think if you follow the news you've heard, coal is not on the out because of a necessarily a quote unquote war on coal. I think the thing that victimized coal the most was cheap natural gas. And now the cost of renewable energy is coming down to the point where there is grid parity or better with clean and renewable power to fossil fuel sources. So whatever happens with the clean power plan, the economics of coal are fading out and moving away and industry and the states are not going to give up on clean and renewable energy because it makes economic sense. So we shall see and I will add that I think and also somebody who spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania I think it is incredibly critical that we make sure that folks who work in coal and other fossil fuel industries don't have to head into even further sectoral decline. And I think that's important. I think it's the responsibility of the states and of the US government to take that view that can help folks and help folks move forward without a ill-fated attempt to double down on coal. So it looks like soon President Trump will have key cabinet folks installed in energy. The US Senate will soon vote on Representative Zinke's nomination to lead the Department of the Interior after lawmakers voted 67 to 31 to limit debate. Senators are also expected to vote on the nomination of former Texas Governor Rick Perry to lead the Department of Energy. While Democrats have delayed voting on the nominees both are expected to be confirmed. A vote on Zinke could come as early as Wednesday morning according to Politico with Perry's confirmation likely following the end of the week. Once Perry is installed at DOE, Energy Wire reports, Brian McCormick, Vice President of Political and External Affairs at the Edison Electric Institute will be brought on board as the new Chief of Staff. EEI is a trade group for US investor-owned utilities. So very interesting, we've reported before. Governor Rick Perry, I think, came to a growing awareness about what the Department of Energy is really about. As we've mentioned, we had Carl Robigo on our show right after the election and he explained that the Department of Energy's main task is really overseeing America's nuclear stockpiles. That's why we've had nuclear physicists at the head of the agency for the past couple of administrations. And I think that when Rick Perry came and saw what really some of the core functions of the DOE were, he rolled back on his previous decisions to destroy the Department of Energy. And I don't think I'm cynical in saying that Rick Perry has been in Texas an advocate and a champion for industry, for the energy industry. And while I think he's going to take his charge seriously now of being our nuclear physicist in charge, EEI coming on to be Chief of Staff is a real signal that industry is going to have a very big role in the Department of Energy. That'll be interesting to see because I know President Trump has signaled that he'd like to ramp down funding for renewable and other new energy sources. But I think that industry, and this by this, I mean the utility industry, is interested in seeing some of that research go forward. So we shall see. Okay, this is actually an important story, an important debate, this next one we're gonna talk about. So another academic study is challenging the economics of pairing rooftop solar panels behind the meter energy storage. The study by Eric Hittinger and Jawad Siduki for the Rochester Institute of Technology was published earlier this month in Utilities Policy. It follows on the heels of a study in nature energy that said storing solar power can increase energy consumption and emissions levels. Hittinger said his study was undertaken as a reaction to the media coverage in the wake of the unveiling of Tesla's power wall residential battery. The study also takes on recent studies by the Rocky Mountain Institute that have predicted that solar plus storage systems will reach grid parity and affection will become an increasingly popular option. Overall, the research has found that for grid defection to make sense, a customer must face high electricity bills and unfavorable net metering or feed in policies. But they've point out that many places that have high electric rates also have robust net metering policies. Hawaii, which rescinded its net metering program and replaced it with two interim on-grid and off-grid options, is the exception. So this is why I think that this debate is so important. Basically, these studies, I mean, they're competing studies that are talking about, A, what will battery storage mean for actual emissions? Emissions of greenhouse gas and carbon co-pollutants. According to some, it's not clear that storage is going to be as much of a clean improvement as some may think, while that's disputed and I think debatable. But B, when does it economically make sense to pair PV with storage behind the meter? I think everyone, and that's, I think why the Tesla Powerwall discussion came up, because I think everyone in the conversation sort of understands that battery storage is going to be that key, that missing link. We know that solar energy only works at certain times of day, and unless you can store that power, you're gonna need to get it from somewhere else. So we know that storage is the key. However, will behind the meter storage be good for the environment and will it be good economically? The study then goes on to say, look, going ahead and going off-grid with your storage and your PV makes a ton of sense if you've got high energy prices and you don't have a good program for net metering. And then it talks about what's going on in Hawaii. And it I think just emphasizes the importance of Hawaii coming together for a really good sensible policy going forward. So that brings us to the end of another edition of PowerUp Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together for a clean and renewable energy future. I'm your host, Raya Salter. Thank you and mahalo.