STAND. COM. REP. NO.1572
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2001
RE: S.C.R. No. 141
S.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2001
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Water, Land, Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 141 entitled:
"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION AND THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER ADVOCACY TO REVIEW THE LENGTH OF TIME NECESSARY TO NEGOTIATE POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENTS AND DEVELOP A METHOD TO EXPEDITE NEGOTIATIONS WITH NONFOSSIL FUEL PRODUCERS, INCLUDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDIZED CONTRACTS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to request the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Division of Consumer Advocacy (Consumer Advocate) to review the process to negotiate power purchase agreements and develop a method to expedite negotiations, including the development of standardized contracts.
Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Hawaii Renewable Energy Alliance, Apollo Energy Corporation, Life of the Land, and nine individuals. The Public Utilities Commission and the Consumer Advocate submitted comments.
Your Committee finds that this measure would address barriers relating to lengthy renewable energy contract negotiations, which were identified in the Public Utilities Commission's report to the Legislature pursuant to S.C.R. No. 40, S.D. 1, 1994, entitled Strategies to Facilitate the Development and Use of Renewable Energy Resources in the State of Hawaii.
Your Committee further finds that a standard contract that reduces the cost, time, and complexity of the power purchase agreement negotiation process, as envisioned, would remove a significant barrier to the deployment of renewable energy. This would provide benefits to both the renewable energy developer and the utility involved, and would reduce the regulatory burden on the Public Utilities Commission.
Your Committee has amended this measure to focus on the standardized contract and to assign the work to the Consumer Advocate, rather than the PUC and the Consumer Advocate. Specifically, the changes:
(1) Amend the title to reflect this change;
(2) Delete the fourth WHEREAS clause on the difficulties of negotiating contracts and replace it with three new WHEREAS clauses with more specific language;
(3) Focus the BE IT RESOLVED clauses on development of standard form power purchase contracts by the Consumer Advocate; and
(4) Include opportunities for testimony from the public during this process.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 141, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 141, S.D. 1.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, Energy and Environment,
|
____________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair |
||