Testimony of
Matthias Paustian, Sierra Club DC Chapter
Before the Transportation and the Environment Committee
On the Climate Commitment Act (Bill 24-420)
January 25, 2022
Thank you for holding this hearing today. My name is Matthias Paustian, and I am testifying on behalf of the Sierra Club DC Chapter.
The Sierra Club applauds you, Councilmember Cheh, and the seven co-introducers of this bill for putting forward a clear timeline for reaching carbon neutrality and a consistent framework to assess progress toward this goal. As recent months have made painfully clear, federal policies addressing the climate crisis are highly uncertain and continued local leadership on climate action is absolutely critical.
If enacted, the Climate Commitment Act would establish statutory targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions beginning in 2025 and in five year steps thereafter, culminating in carbon neutrality by 2050. Importantly, the bill requires the District government to be carbon neutral in its own operations by 2040.
The statutory GHG reduction targets that the bill would establish carry more weight than the existing informal targets that the District has set. Interim targets every five years help ensure steady progress toward the District’s ultimate climate commitments and prevent the tendency to backload most carbon emission reductions in distant years while continuing with business as usual policies in the near- and medium-term. The required periodic projections of GHG emissions will help assess whether existing policies are adequate or whether additional policies need to be put in place.
The extreme weather events of last year have also made clear that climate change is accelerating at a pace that many of us did not expect as recently as when this bill was introduced in May of last year. In October of last year, the DC area experienced its worst coastal flooding in years. Parts of the Wharf in Southwest DC were underwater and water surged over the walls of the Tidal Basin. In Georgetown, the Potomac River surged two feet over flood stage. A teenager died in a flooded basement apartment in Rockville. The United Nations published its updated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change in October and the U.N. secretary-general noted that the “climate crisis is a code red for humanity and that urgent action is needed before it is too late.”
The Sierra Club urges this committee to strengthen this important bill further with the following changes:
First, the date for carbon neutrality should be pulled forward to 2045. The District would join other jurisdictions that already have such a commitment. Virginia enacted a 2045 target in legislation last year, and there is legislation pending in Maryland with a 2045 target. In January of this year, the mayor of Baltimore announced that the city aims to be carbon neutral by 2045. DC should not lag behind these jurisdictions. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, all reduction goals at the five year intervals before 2045 should be raised by 10 percentage points. For example, the 2030 reduction requirement should be raised to 60 percent. This is achievable. In the latest available GHG inventory for the year 2019, DC had already reduced its emissions by 31 percent relative to the benchmark of 2006. DOEE estimates that existing policies alone would get the District to a reduction of GHG emissions by 56 percent in 2030. So a target of a 60 percent reduction for 2030 is only stretching us a little further than what business as usual already achieves.
Second, we applaud the requirement that the District government achieve carbon neutrality in its own operations by 2040, but we are concerned about the bill’s lack of specific direction on how to get there. It is well known that many District agencies do not have a good track record in implementing broad council directives. We believe the District government needs to be required in this legislation to abide by two policies without which it is impossible to be carbon neutral by 2040:
- Require that 100% of new government vehicle purchases have zero carbon tailpipe emissions from 2025 onward.
- Require that all replacements of water and space heating equipment in government buildings must have zero carbon on-site emissions from 2025 onward. We suggest that exceptions for good cause should be granted by application to and approval of the Green Building Advisory Council.
With the lifetimes of motor vehicles and HVAC equipment of 10 to 20 years, there is no way the District government can become carbon neutral by 2040 unless it stops purchasing equipment that would lock us into continued carbon emissions. Here, too, other jurisdictions have already passed similar measures. For example, in 2018 Seattle committed to a vehicle fleet that is 100 percent fossil fuel free by 2030. And in 2021, Seattle’s Mayor committed all municipal buildings to operate without fossil fuel systems and appliances no later than 2035.
To conclude, the Sierra Club strongly supports this important piece of legislation. We commend you, Councilmember Cheh, and the co-sponsors for this bill. Thank you for your leadership on combating the climate crisis.