STAND. COM. REP. NO.883-02
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2002
RE: S.B. No. 2802
S.D. 2
H.D. 1
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2002
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Water and Land Use and Energy and Environmental Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 2802, S.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LEASING OF PUBLIC LANDS TO RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCERS,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to encourage the development of renewable forms of energy by authorizing the Board of Land and Natural Resources to lease public lands to renewable energy producers through direct negotiations.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiary utilities, Maui Electric Company and Hawaii Electric Light Company, and The BRG Group testified in support of this measure. Hawaii Renewable Energy Alliance supported the intent of this bill.
Chapter 171, Hawaii Revised Statutes, allows for the leasing of public lands by direct negotiation to public utilities, including electric utility companies. However, the law currently excludes renewable energy producers who provide power to the electric utility companies. Accordingly, public lands can only be leased to these entities through auction. Since a substantial amount of upfront work is necessary to plan and develop these
renewable energy projects, potential applicants are reluctant to go through the costly process when they are not assured of a lease. This bill seeks to eliminate this impediment.
Upon further consideration, your Committees have amended this bill by deleting its substance and inserting the substance of H.B. No. 2544, H.D. 1, its companion bill.
This bill has been further amended by:
(1) Deleting the requirement that any disposition to renewable energy producers be subject to legislative disapproval;
(2) Clarifying the definition of "renewable energy producer" to require a producer to sell all of the net power produced to an electric utility company. Specifying "net" power allows the producer to use some of the power that it generates for its own needs; and
(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments to conform to standard drafting conventions.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land Use and Energy and Environmental Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2802, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2802, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land Use and Energy and Environmental Protection,
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____________________________ HERMINA M. MORITA, Chair |
____________________________ EZRA KANOHO, Chair |
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