Testimony of Jean Stewart
Sierra Club District of Columbia Chapter
Oversight Hearing on the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development
Committee on Business and Economic Development
Wednesday, February 15, 2023, 9:30 am
Chairperson McDuffie, thank you for the opportunity to testify at this oversight hearing on the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. My name is Jean Stewart, and I am a member of the Sierra Club District of Columbia Chapter’s Clean Energy Committee. The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. The DC chapter has about 3,000 dues-paying members across all eight of DC’s wards.
Increasingly, our organization and members have come to recognize and embrace a mission that goes beyond simply environmental and climate protection to include equity, environmental justice, and the well being of our communities. In DC, we and our partners in the faith and low-income advocacy communities see no daylight between climate protection, the clean energy transition, and the assurance of affordable housing that is safe and healthy for DC residents.
Taking a look at the website for this agency, specifically the “About DMPED” page, we see laudable goals, including increasing the supply of affordable housing and promoting an equitable economic recovery. But there is no reference whatsoever to sustainability, climate resilience, or alignment with the mayor’s own climate plans and commitments, including those within Clean Energy DC, Sustainable DC, and Keep Cool DC.
With the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), new Federal funds are becoming available for the District of Columbia to jumpstart economic recovery and to implement the Mayor’s Comeback Plan for revitalizing our city’s core. These monies should be in part directed toward transition planning for new developments and improvements in existing buildings and their surroundings. Specifically, all new buildings going forward should be fully electric, further shrinking DC’s carbon footprint, reducing air pollution, and advancing the District toward the Mayor’s climate and emissions reduction goals. Funding from the IRA and the DC budget should be dedicated to retrofitting existing low- and moderate-income housing to cover the initial cost of transition from unhealthy and polluting methane gas to energy from renewably-sourced electricity.
This initial investment will lead to long-term savings in energy costs as the cost of renewably-sourced electricity continues to decrease, while rates for methane gas will continue to increase – a fact which DC’s methane gas utility has acknowledged. Transition away from methane gas will also reduce negative health effects, costs of medical treatments, and lost workdays and schooldays due to illnesses exacerbated by exposure to indoor pollution from methane gas and associated pollutants.
Sustainability of District-led Developments
The Sierra Club urges the District government to incorporate principles of sustainability in the major, city-led developments of public property that are underway, in the planning phase, or anticipated. These include Walter Reed, St. Elizabeth’s East, McMillan, Poplar Point, and the RFK stadium site. We are concerned that the District may not be incorporating its own principles of sustainability, laid out in a series of plans and commitments, including Clean Energy DC, Sustainable DC, and the District's climate, zero waste, and Vision Zero commitments. If so, this omission would not only lock in decades of greenhouse gas emissions, but also exacerbate negative public health and economic outcomes in adjacent communities.
With the global climate crisis, ecosystem failures, and catastrophic reductions in global biodiversity now clearly evident, the past can no longer be the guide for the future. Because of climate change, our city will increasingly be subjected to extreme conditions, including scorching heat waves, extreme rainfall, Arctic cold from polar vortex incidents, more Snowmageddons, and sea level rise in the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers. As stated in Mayor Bowser’s introduction to the Keep Cool DC plan, “[t]he impacts of climate change are not distant threats.” For the safety, financial stability, comfort, and even the survival of the families and businesses that will occupy these new developments, it is essential that they achieve the highest levels of sustainability.
New and renovated buildings must be net-zero energy: highly energy efficient and using on-site energy including passive solar energy, solar panels, and ground-source geothermal heating and cooling wherever possible. Net-zero buildings provide their inhabitants with affordable and more predictable energy bills and greater comfort and resiliency to extremes of weather. All buildings must also include electric vehicle charging infrastructure or be EV-ready. Microgrids that do not use fossil fuels should be incorporated wherever feasible. All buildings and grounds should be designed to absorb and reuse rainwater to protect lives and property from extreme rainfall and reduce runoff into storm sewers and rivers.
These communities should be designed with “complete streets” principles to be safe and accessible to all modes of transportation, including walking and biking; public transit; and shared modes of transportation and micro mobility, thereby reducing vehicle trips and the need for private vehicles and parking. Communities should include parks and community gardens for the enjoyment and sustenance of their human and animal residents and to reduce the urban heat island effect. Important natural areas such as wetlands should be protected and expanded, because they support wildlife, absorb flood water, filter contaminants out of water, and serve as one of the most effective natural buffers against climate change impacts.
These are not new and untested approaches to development; this is a matter of applying existing knowledge and experience. We encourage District employees who are planning these developments to avail themselves of the vision and expertise of sustainability experts inside and outside the DC agencies. We also strongly encourage obtaining input from community members early in the planning process as key to making environmental equity an inherent element of development. Genuine community input brings an important perspective from those affected by these developments and can avoid needless controversy and delay by earning early buy-in from the community.