STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1056-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 2000

                                 RE: S.B. No. 2166
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Energy and Environmental Protection and
Consumer Protection and Commerce, to which was referred S.B. No.
2166 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WIND FARMS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to assist electricity producing
wind farms by:

     (1)  Allowing these farms to benefit from the State's
          Enterprise Zones Program; and

     (2)  Exempting from the payment of general excise taxes the
          sale of electric power to a public utility for resale
          to the public.

     Apollo Energy Corporation, the Hawaii Renewable Energy
Alliance, Life of the Land, and an individual testified in
support of this bill.  The Department of Business, Economic
Development, and Tourism, Hawaiian Electric Company and its
subsidiary utilities, Maui Electric Company and Hawaii Electric
Light Company, and the University of Hawaii's Environmental
Center supported the intent of this measure.  The Department of
Taxation opposed passage of this bill, and the Tax Foundation of
Hawaii offered comments.

     Your Committees recognize that due to the narrow title of
the bill, the new provisions of section 209E-11, Hawaii Revised

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1056-00
                                 Page 2

 
Statutes, should not be misinterpreted to apply to other forms of
electric power.  Accordingly, your Committees have amended this
bill to specify that it is the sale of electric power produced
from wind energy that is exempt from the payment of general
excise taxes.  The bill was further amended to correct certain
typographic errors.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Energy and Environmental Protection and Consumer
Protection and Commerce that are attached to this report, your
Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No.
2166, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2166, H.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Finance.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committees on Energy and
                                   Environmental Protection and
                                   Consumer Protection and
                                   Commerce,

                                   
                                   
                                   
                                   
______________________________     ______________________________
RON MENOR, Chair                   HERMINA M. MORITA, Chair