Testimony
of
Mary Feeherry
Clean Energy Committee, Sierra Club DC Chapter
at the
the Community Hearing on Gas Safety
Thank you for the opportunity to testify to the Public Service Commission (PSC). My name is Mary Feeherry. I am a long time DC resident and a member of the Clean Energy Committee of the Sierra Club DC Chapter. The Sierra Club is the nation's oldest and largest environmental advocacy group, with 3,000 dues-paying members in DC.
Pursuant to the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act of 2018, the PSC is required to "take into consideration the effects on global climate change and the District's climate commitments when making its regulatory decisions." In my comments today I will be focusing on the threat caused by the continuing leakage of methane gas in neighborhoods served by Washington Gas. I will then point out that in the long term, DC must transition away from using gas altogether and that we must start that transition now.
The Sierra Club is concerned that Washington Gas mains are leaking methane gas. The Sierra Club is concerned about these leaks for several reasons. First, because of the threat to the safety of our residents and second, because of the impact of these leaks on the climate crisis.
DC has committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% below 2006 levels by 2032, and to be carbon neutral by 2050. To achieve these goals DC needs to begin now to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, including methane gas, and to stop burning fossil fuels entirely within a few decades.
These are ambitious goals that cannot be met while we are burning and leaking methane gas. Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and therefore much more harmful to the environment. Washington Gas cannot expect to reduce greenhouse gas in our environment when methane leaks are increasing.
These leaks are dangerous and Washington Gas may not be implementing state of the art technology to deal with them. For example, the utility in Pittsburg is using advanced leak detection methods developed in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund and Google Earth Outreach to map and measure leaks coming from underground pipes. They are using highly sensitive leak detection sensors and advanced data analytics. DC may benefit from a similar approach.
Over the period that the PIPES 1 program was in place, the number of leaks identified appears to have continued to rise at an alarming rate according to data provided by the Apartment and Office Building Association (AOBA). It also appears that the money spent in the PIPES1 plan was not necessarily targeted at replacing the most serious leaks. We therefore ask that in future, money spent on mitigating methane leaks be strongly prioritized to specifically address the most dangerous and most serious leaks first. We also ask that money allocated be tied to achieving specific and ambitious goals in the reduction of the volume of methane leaked from the distribution system.
But even if all leaks were somehow fixed, DC simply cannot achieve its climate goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 if it continues to rely on gas for heating and cooking. To help avert the gravest consequences of the climate crisis, we must end our dependence on gas altogether. This can be accomplished by transitioning from gas to electricity generated by renewable sources for heating and cooking.
We urge the PSC to take its climate responsibility seriously and begin planning the process of conversion to electricity. This should be done first in all new construction, avoiding the initial costs of gas hookups. Then existing buildings should be converted, perhaps by incentivizing the retrofitting of older structures.
Converting to electricity will have these positive outcomes: reduction in leaks of environmentally hazardous methane gas and safety of citizens from ignition of methane gas in buildings, which has resulted in deaths and displacement.
Other cities across the US are already beginning that transition. For example, in the city of Berkeley, California an ordinance is currently being introduced that would prohibit hooking up new buildings to gas, essentially mandating all-electric homes. Los Angeles has similar plans to require all new construction to be zero carbon by 2030.
Let's transition to electricity. Once that transition is complete, we will not need to debate how to spend huge sum of money over decades on upgrading an aging and dangerous distribution system for dirty gas.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.