SUPPORT SB300 & HB1568: Critical Climate Bills
/Two of the most important proposals this session to fight back against the fossil fuel industry will be heard next week. Please testify and show our legislators and the world that Hawaiʻi will not stand idly by, as we witness these oil and gas megacorporations continue to destroy our planet and our children’s future.
This Monday, February 9 at 10:15am, the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee will hear SB3000, which provides the state and insurance providers legal tools to make fossil fuel companies pay for the suffering and destruction their lies and coverups will inflict on our islands.
Then, on Tuesday, February 10, we have been informed that the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee will likely hear HB1568, to stop Hawaiʻi from importing methane—a greenhouse gas 80 times worse for our planet than carbon dioxide—and from being used to market “liquified natural gas” to nations throughout the Pacific (stay tuned for an update when the notice is formally posted).
What these bills do
SB3000 would help keep home insurance affordable and available in Hawaiʻi, by empowering the state Attorney General and Hawaiʻi insurance providers to sue major oil and gas corporations, for the harms and costs of preparing for and recovering from climate-driven disasters.
HB1568 bans the importation or storage of methane-based liquified natural gas, or “LNG,” the development of infrastructure to deliver and burn LNG, and prohibits the issuance of permits to otherwise allow LNG to become Hawaiʻi’s next fossil fuel addiction.
Why these bills are important
Hawaiʻi is drowning - literally and figuratively - in skyrocketing home insurance rates, as well as from ever-worsening sea level rise, floods, and other climate disasters that are driving this insurance crisis. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of the climate crisis continue to make trillions of dollars per year, even as they work to condemn our children, grandchildren, and generations yet unborn to a future of unprecedented devastation.
SB3000 will allow Hawaiʻi to do its part in the fight against the fossil fuel companies that are drowning our islands and killing our planet, by enabling the state and insurance providers to file suit and make these corporations pay for the damage they are inflicting on our ‘āina and people. Funds recovered from these lawsuits will also help to stabilize our insurance rates, and keep insurers from leaving Hawaiʻi.
Meanwhile, HB1568 would put the brakes on the Governor’s proposal to lock us into an indefinite dependency on fossil fuel giant JERA, and its planet-killing methane-based LNG. Cost overruns alone for the $2B LNG infrastructure investment could leave HECO customers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars or more; maintenance issues, human error, or a hurricane, earthquake, or fire - as seen as recently as this Tuesday - would make matters even worse. However, the true costs of the JERA-Hawaiʻi proposal - by embracing LNG and marketing this fossil fuel to nations across Oceania - would be immeasurable. The blanket LNG prohibition in this bill may be the only way to ensure that Hawaiʻi does not help a fossil fuel corporation lead us down a path of existential destruction.
Sample testimony for SB3000
Aloha Chair Keohokālole, Vice Chair Fukunaga, and members of the Committee,
My name is ______ and I STRONGLY SUPPORT SB3000.
After decades of deception and lies by the fossil fuel industry, the climate crisis they’ve created has already severely disrupted or destroyed thousands of lives and livelihoods in our islands, and threatens to destroy countless more. To add insult to injury, even residents not yet directly impacted by climate disasters are being forced to pay skyrocketing, climate-driven insurance premiums, while oil and gas corporations continue to rake in trillions of dollars in profits every year.
This is unacceptable.
SB3000 would accordingly allow Hawaiʻi to do its part to fight back against the fossil fuel companies that are killing our people and our planet, authorizing the state and insurance providers to file suit and make these corporations pay for the harms they cause. Funds recovered from these lawsuits will also help to stabilize our insurance rates, and keep insurers from leaving Hawaiʻi. This measure is a bold but common-sense approach to make the truly responsible parties pay for the crisis we are experiencing, while providing urgently needed relief to their victims - Hawaiʻi’s people.
As we witness our children and grandchildren inherit a world and a future of unprecedented destruction, doing nothing is not an option. The legislature must act. We must act. Hawaiʻi can once again take the lead in responding to our climate crisis in a truly rational manner, while also protecting our people and future generations from its physical, spiritual, and financial harms that will only worsen over time.
Accordingly, I respectfully urge the Committee to PASS this measure. Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Sample testimony for HB1586 (note: testimony will only be taken after the hearing notice is posted - please stay tuned!)
Aloha Chair Lowen, Vice Chair Perruso, and Members of the Committee,
My name is ______ and I STRONGLY SUPPORT HB1568.
Climate experts agree: with a global warming potential 80 times higher than carbon dioxide, and with a lifecycle climate impact worse than coal, we must significantly cut down our use of methane as an energy source by the end of the decade. Doing so may be the best and only way to buy us desperately needed time, before the climate crisis spirals beyond our control.
Despite this, the Hawaiʻi State Energy Office has put forward a short-sighted proposal for Hawaiʻi to embrace methane, or liquified natural gas (LNG), as a “temporary” “bridge” fuel, with no specific strategy to transition to a renewable alternative by 2045. To make matters worse, the Governor has signed a “Strategic Partnering Agreement” with fossil fuel giant JERA, to force Oʻahu’s HECO customers to invest in this planet-destroying corporation through their electrical bills - and with the vision of using Hawaiʻi to market LNG to other Pacific nations. In other words, Hawaiʻi is poised to lead Oceania in accelerating the end of humanity, and humankind as we know it.
This measure may be the only way to ensure the Governor and Hawaiʻi State Energy Office cease and desist in their efforts to bring LNG to Hawaiʻi, and to other places far beyond our shores.
To be clear, cost overruns alone for the proposed $2B LNG infrastructure investment could leave HECO customers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars or more; maintenance issues, human error, or a hurricane, earthquake, or fire - like we’ve seen as recently as this past Tuesday - would make the financial consequences even worse.
However, the true costs of the current Hawaiʻi-JERA proposal - to have us embrace LNG, and market this fossil fuel to nations far and wide - would be immeasurable.
This bill may be the only way to ensure that Hawaiʻi does not help a fossil fuel corporation lead us down a path of existential destruction – a path that may condemn our children and grandchildren to a future of unthinkable devastation.
Accordingly, I respectfully but strongly urge the Committee to PASS this measure.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter "SB3000" where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
(NOTE: testimony for HB1568 will be accepted only after the hearing notice is posted, likely by Friday evening)
Input your information and your written testimony, select your testimony option(s)—in-person + written, remotely + written, written only. Please consider providing verbal testimony (in-person or remotely) if you are able!
Note: Virtual testimony option may be disabled 24 hours before the hearing.
If you are testifying via Zoom, be sure to review these instructions (page 4)