Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1634, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the issuance of special purpose revenue bonds to assist Jacoby Development, Inc., develop a plasma municipal solid waste processing system on Oahu.

Your Committee finds that plasma technology is an emerging industry that uses high-powered levels of electricity to create a plasma (a form of artificial lightning) with temperatures exceeding 7,000 degrees Celsius. The development of this type of stable, efficient, and cost-effective heat source has opened the door to a wide range of applications, including the development of municipal and industrial solid waste processing systems.

Solid waste processing systems are important to Hawaii because of the tremendous amounts of solid waste generated in the State. On the island of Oahu alone, approximately 1,500,000 tons of waste is generated annually. Most of the island's solid waste is disposed of at two waste-to-energy H-POWER plants run by the city and county of Honolulu. Although these plants process over 600,000 tons of waste annually, nearly 1,400 tons of waste is landfilled daily because of HPOWER limitations.

This bill would provide the means to not only finance a project to reduce the State's need for landfill space, but would also support an emerging technology that is far superior to conventional methods of processing solid waste.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1634, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.