Sierra Club Calls for End to Gas Incentives in DC

Dear Director Wells,

The Sierra Club thanks you and Mayor Bowser for her administration’s work to reduce DC’s greenhouse emissions to meet our public climate commitments of 50 percent emissions reductions by 2032 and carbon neutrality by 2050. The Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) Clean Energy DC plan and the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Amendment Act, signed earlier this year by Mayor Bowser, put the District almost on track to meet our 2032 commitment. But DC is not on course to come anywhere close to our 2050 commitment of carbon neutrality.

The District will never meet our public climate commitments as long as we remain reliant on burning methane gas for space heating, water heating and cooking. The District government, the Public Service Commission, and even Washington Gas acknowledged this fact in the 2018 AltaGas/Washington Gas merger. The merger agreement states that by January 1, 2020, Washington Gas will announce a long-term business plan to evolve its business model to support and serve the District's 2050 climate goals by no longer relying on selling methane gas.

The Sierra Club believes an important early step toward ending DC’s reliance on methane gas is to end utility ratepayer subsidies for burning gas. Currently, 20 percent of money collected from electric and gas ratepayers by the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund (SETF) goes toward methane gas efficiency programs administered by the DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU). Though the segregation of funds for gas and electricity is ending in the new fiscal year, the Sierra Club believes DC should end gas efficiency programs entirely. Meeting DC’s climate commitments requires ending the use of methane gas, not making it more efficient.

The Clean Energy DC plan (page 80) acknowledges fuel switching from gas to electricity is required for DC to achieve our greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. But DCSEU’s contract effectively penalizes this, because eliminating gas use results in increased electricity use, which counts against the electricity reduction goals DCSEU is required to achieve. To end this perverse incentive to continue gas use in DC, which contradicts DC’s climate commitments, the Sierra Club asks that DOEE’s next energy efficiency contract specifically exclude gas and instead incentivize switching from gas to electricity.

The Clean Energy DC Omnibus Amendment Act, most of which takes effect on October 1, substantially increases fees deposited into the SETF. Part of the increased SETF revenue is set aside for DCSEU programs. The Sierra Club requests that additional SETF funding allocated to DCSEU be dedicated to electrification programs designed to transition DC residents, businesses and other energy users from gas to electricity. This may require additional efforts at improving insulation and other efficiency measures, which the Sierra Club fully supports.

The Sierra Club thanks Mayor Bowser and DOEE for serious efforts thus far to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect our residents from the worst effects of climate change. We look forward to future cooperation on safeguarding our city and our residents from climate disruption.

Sincerely,

Mark Rodeffer
Chair, Sierra Club DC Chapter

CC:    
Ted Trabue, Managing Director, District of Columbia Sustainable Energy Utility
Mary Cheh, Chair, DC Council Committee on Transportation and Environment