Testimony
Sierra Club DC Chapter
DC Council Committee on Business and Economic Development
Public Service Commission Emile Thompson Confirmation Resolution of 2022
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Introduction
Thank you, Councilmember McDuffie, for the opportunity for the Sierra Club to provide testimony today about the nomination of Emile Thompson to serve as chairman of the Public Service Commission. The Sierra Club is the nation’s oldest, largest, and most influential environmental advocacy organization. We have chapters in all 50 states and the District, with about 3,000 dues-paying members in DC.
Most of DC’s greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings. Nearly a quarter of DC’s greenhouse gas emissions come from a single source: the combustion of methane gas sold by AltaGas, the owner of Washington Gas. As the regulator of the gas and electric utilities, the Public Service Commission plays the most critical role among DC agencies in ensuring that DC meets our climate commitments of carbon neutrality and the end of fossil fuel combustion in DC by 2050. For DC to meet its climate commitments, we must have proactive leadership from the Commission.
The Climate Crisis
Climate change is not a future possibility. Catastrophic climate disruption is happening now. DC has experienced 5 degrees of warming since the 1880s as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion.[1] The number of days reaching 90 degrees and above has increased from an average of 33 days a year in the mid-1970s to an average of 49 days a year between 2010 and 2020. Extreme heat kills more people in the United States than any other kind of extreme weather,[2] and climate change is driving up the frequency, length, and severity of heat waves.[3] Humidity has increased between 5 and 10 percent since the 1970s, resulting in heavier storms and increased flooding in DC. Nearly one in three Americans experienced an extreme weather disaster last year.[4] Without robust action on climate change, heat, flooding, and extreme weather events will get worse.
Has the Nominee Provided Proactive Leadership at the Commission?
When Emile Thompson was nominated to serve on the Commission last year, the Sierra Club, along with other advocates and members of the Council, asked Mr. Thompson at his confirmation hearing whether he would provide proactive leadership to meet DC’s climate commitments of achieving carbon neutrality and ending the combustion of fossil fuels in DC. Mr. Thompson pledged that he would be a proactive leader on climate issues if confirmed. Based on that pledge, Mr. Thompson earned the votes of members of this Committee who did not support the Mayor’s prior nominee because of that nominee’s lack of vision on climate issues.
The Sierra Club urges the Committee to ask Mr. Thompson about the proactive leadership he has provided in his year serving on the Commission. We are not asking for information about the Commission carrying out DC's Renewable Portfolio Standard or solar energy laws, which are required by statute and do not represent proactive leadership on the part of the Commission. We ask Mr. Thompson to share specific examples of how the Commission has taken proactive leadership on climate issues on its own initiative. We further ask the Committee to press Mr. Thompson on what proactive measures he plans to take if confirmed to a full term as chairman of the Public Service Commission. Again, we ask for specific actions he plans to take on the initiative of the Commission, not actions the Commission will take to meet its statutory obligations.
The Sierra Club shared our testimony with Mr. Thompson in advance of today's hearing to give him the opportunity to prepare to answer questions about the proactive leadership he has demonstrated at the Commission and how he plans to do so in the future if confirmed as chairman.
How Can the Commission Provide Proactive Leadership?
AltaGas has proposed charging DC residents for debt service on its costly fossil fuel infrastructure until 2085 – 35 years after DC has committed to achieving carbon neutrality and ending fossil fuel combustion. This is akin to taking out a 63-year mortgage on a home you will move out of in 28 years – 35 years before the mortgage is paid off.
Rather than allowing decades of gas infrastructure spending, Mr. Thompson and the Commission could provide proactive leadership by crafting a regulatory structure and making concrete decisions that prohibit AltaGas from spending money on fossil fuel infrastructure and recovering the dirty energy costs from DC ratepayers. To the degree that any dollars are spent on gas piping, the Commission should accelerate cost recovery for all fossil fuel infrastructure spending by 2050. This strategy is both prudent and necessary. It is necessary because AltaGas wants to mix into its fracked methane gas so-called renewable methane gas from sources like cow manure from factory farms. The extreme cost of fossil gas alternatives like manure gas will result in much higher gas prices for DC residents. We cannot burden future ratepayers with both the extreme cost of manure gas and the legacy costs of fossil fuel infrastructure spending.
Instead, fossil fuel infrastructure cost recovery should occur early, while ratepayers still enjoy relatively low fuel costs. The approach is also prudent, because if DC is fully transitioned off fossil fuels by 2050, as the District has committed to doing, there may be little use for the piping system AltaGas wants to build. We cannot feasibly charge DC residents for the costs of this dirty infrastructure 35 years after we have committed to stop using it.
Another area where Mr. Thompson and the Commission could provide proactive leadership is requiring the gas utility to engage in a pilot project for a networked geothermal heating system, as the utility Eversource is doing in Massachusetts. At a meeting hosted by the DC Environmental Network, Mr. Thompson was asked about this possibility, and his response was that the Commission has not taken action on such a pilot because AltaGas has not requested it. That reactive approach is the opposite of the proactive approach Mr. Thompson promised this Committee.
The Sierra Club urges Mr. Thompson and the Commission to provide proactive leadership to move Washington Gas to a truly sustainable business model by creating a networked geothermal heating system, sometimes called micro or neighborhood geothermal district heating. With such a pilot project, heat pumps would extract heat from the ground and deliver that heat to customers through a network of pipes. This could be done as an alternative to gas pipe replacements in targeted areas. The technology could also leverage heat in the District’s sewer system instead of extracting heat from the ground. We urge Mr. Thompson and the Commission to look to the Eversource pilot in Massachusetts for guidance – and we ask that Mr. Thompson and the Commission not wait for proposals from the Calgary-based fracked gas company that owns our local utility and has demonstrated it is committed to continued reliance on fossil fuels.
Proactive Leadership vs. Staff Inertia
The Commission’s staff should not be a stumbling block in DC’s clean energy transition. The Commission staff is at times hesitant about changing old ways of thinking and ending business as usual. Given the severity of the climate crisis, the Commission’s old way of business must end. We ask that Mr. Thompson commit that if confirmed, he will challenge Commission staff to develop creative and proactive approaches to ending fossil fuel combustion. In addition to ensuring a new approach among the Commission staff, we recommend that the Commission hire new staff specifically to work on climate issues, including the difficult issue of how to end emissions from fossil fuels by a utility whose primary business is selling fossil fuels to combust and thus create greenhouse emissions.
Conclusion
Thank you again, Councilmember McDuffie, for the opportunity to testify today. And thank you to all the members of this Committee who will decide whether Emile Thompson is confirmed as chairman of the Public Service Commission. We ask that you decide to confirm or not confirm Mr. Thompson based on whether you think he has and will provide proactive leadership at the Public Service Commission.