The Hawaii Department of Transportation has a draft plan to largely eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from ground, air and ocean transportation vehicles in the state by 2045.
HDOT Director Ed Sniffen shared highlights of the draft with a panel of state lawmakers Wednesday, drawing praise and encouragement mixed with concerns over cost.
Implementing the plan will involve a big expense, which has yet to be estimated but is expected to add to what residents pay for fuel, groceries, airfare and other things.
Producing the plan by June 20 was required as part of a June 2024 settlement of a climate impact lawsuit filed against the state in 2022 by about a dozen Hawaii youth.
Isaac Moriwake, a local attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice involved in the litigation, also participated in Wednesday’s presentation and called the settlement a “path-breaking” agreement to address the biggest sector in Hawaii’s economy adding climate-changing greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere.
As part of the settlement, there will be court oversight and collaboration with a 20-member local youth transportation council that includes five plaintiffs to help ensure HDOT reaches a target set by the Legislature in 2018 to achieve net-negative greenhouse gas emissions in Hawaii’s transportation system by 2045.
The lawsuit, Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation, was filed over concerns that HDOT wasn’t adequately working to meet the 2045 goal, and argued that things including floods and drought exacerbated by climate change were violating rights in Hawaii’s Constitution to a life-sustaining climate system.
According to the legal complaint, which also involved the Oregon-based nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, children born in 2020 are projected to experience a dramatic rise in extreme climate events like heat waves, wildfires, crop failures, droughts and floods compared with those born in 1960.
A few members of the new council, including Mia Nishiguchi, a rising senior at Kalani High School who chairs the council, also participated in Wednesday’s presentation to House and Senate members.
“They are a big part of how we move forward in all of these (plan) pieces,” Sniffen said.
The biggest and costliest piece of the plan is establishing clean fuel requirements for all types of transportation vehicles, including cars, passenger jets and cargo ships.
Other plan elements highlighted by Sniffen included expanding pedestrian and bicycle path networks, building more public electric vehicle fast-charging stations, planting thousands of native trees and developing an analytical tool to measure greenhouse gas impacts on all HDOT projects.
Sniffen said $40 million to $50 million annually is to be put toward expanding pedestrian and bicycle path networks over the next five years, and that this represents a compression of what previously would have been done over 15 years.
“This connectivity is going to help us reduce our emissions and get people out on the road other than in their cars,” Sniffen said.
“It’s definitely an ambitious target, and we really appreciate HDOT stepping up on that,” Moriwake added.
The EV charging piece of the plan involves spending $40 million over the next five years to add more than a dozen new fast chargers each featuring four charge ports at ideal locations around the state, including airports.
Sniffen said two such stations were added last year at Aloha Tower Marketplace and a Kahului park-and-ride lot using $2.5 million in annual funding from the federal government, though each station costs $1.5 million to $2 million. This year, six new stations are planned on the neighbor islands.
Plants, which sequester carbon dioxide that represents the biggest component of greenhouse gasses, are also part of HDOT’s plan.
Kawika Pegram, a youth council member from Waipahu, told the legislative panel that HDOT already had a minimum commitment to plant 1,000 native trees annually but planted roughly 3,000 in 2024 and so far this year is up to about 4,200.
“So year over year you’re seeing that the DOT is surpassing their minimum expectations several times over,” Pegram said.
The agency has created a website to show what it has planted and where. The site, at 808ne.ws/4eunHeQ, indicates that the agency’s count includes shrubs and groundcover plants in addition to trees that HDOT either planted or supported planting.
Another element in the plan is to estimate greenhouse gas emissions for every HDOT ground transportation project, including road widening and repair.
“No other state is doing this,” Sniffen said.
The single biggest greenhouse gas emissions change under HDOT’s plan is to come from imposing a clean fuels standard for air, ocean and ground transportation vehicles.
Such fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel for planes, liquefied natural gas for ships and lower-carbon fuels for vehicles on Hawaii roads will result in higher costs for industries and consumers, according to Sniffen, which elicited concerns from some lawmakers.
“I’m all for the decarbonization of Hawaii, but … you are asking folks to move towards a green infrastructure who don’t have green,” said Rep. Darius Kila (D, Nanakuli-Maili), referring to the color of paper money.
“I live in one of the most transportation-impacted areas in the state where work is not where we live, and everything is exacerbated based off of cost, and that’s just rural Oahu. I don’t even want to talk about neighbor island costs,” continued Kila, who chairs the House Transportation Committee. “I know what we’re trying to accomplish, but … you’re asking folks to almost bend to a capacity that they don’t have.”
HDOT intends to seek legislation to provide tax credits for airlines and ocean transportation firms to meet future Hawaii clean fuel standards while other potential incentives are envisioned for drivers throughout the state.
Sniffen said he expects transportation industry representatives to work with HDOT on figuring out how to achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, which under the agency’s plan also includes limiting the cruise ship industry locally and powering ships in port using shoreside power.
“None of the industries are pushing back and saying this is not important,” he said. “They are just saying we got to see how we do this so we can afford it.”
HDOT anticipates finishing an analysis that estimates a cost to reach the 2045 goal, and expects to have a figure by January.
Sen. Brenton Awa (R, Kaneohe-Laie-Mokuleia) asked Sniffen whether the 2045 deadline could be pushed back depending on what the estimated cost ends up being.
Sniffen said that may be possible, and noted that the airline industry has estimated that it will cost $1 billion more to meet the 2045 target compared with their own goal of 2050.
Sniffen also noted that HDOT’s plan is being produced to meet a target established by the Legislature.
“I’m not asking anybody to do this,” he said. “I’m following the law right now, and I’m showing what it takes to get to that 2045 goal.”
Sen. Chris Lee (D, Kailua-Waimanalo-Hawaii Kai) also expressed concerns over Hawaii’s already high cost of living. But the chair of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts suggested that a long-term cost savings may result if reaching the state’s 2045 goal is done right.
HDOT plans to publish its draft plan Friday, host three public videoconference presentations and accept public comments through July 27. A final plan is scheduled for completion by Aug. 27.
