Authorizes the public utilities commission to lead and advance greenhouse gas emission reduction for public utilities supplying electricity.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that greenhouse gas emission is one of the most serious global problems the world faces. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, convened by the United Nations in 1988, and consisting of many of the world's preeminent scientists, reports that increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other gases have altered the climate by causing global warming.

Potential impacts from global warming include a rise in sea levels, flooding of low-lying land (including atolls), salt water intrusion into drinking water aquifers, an increase in extremely hot and extremely cold days, more droughts, more extreme rainfall events, an expansion of the range and incidence of serious diseases, destruction of ecosystems, and the loss of countless plant and animal species.

The nations of the world took steps toward curbing global warming by developing an international treaty on December 11, 1997, in Kyoto, Japan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change sets reduction targets for the industrialized nations of the world to abridge the amount of harmful greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere.

While the United States, the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases, declined to ratify the treaty, efforts are nonetheless underway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, for example, is a cooperative effort by nine northeast and mid-Atlantic states that focuses on reducing power plant emissions. The Chicago Climate Exchange, a self-regulatory exchange developed by twenty-eight large companies and cities (including Chicago and Mexico City), administers the world's first multi-national and multi-sector marketplace for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions.

Power plants that burn fossil fuels are recognized as the biggest sources of carbon pollution. Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from public utilities that produce power and from independent power producers that supply power to the electric utility grid.

SECTION 2. Chapter 269, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§269- Greenhouse gas emission; powers; reporting requirement. (a) The public utilities commission shall lead and advance the process of developing and implementing greenhouse gas emission reduction from public utilities that supply electricity and from independent power producers that supply power to the electric utility grid. This may include, but is not limited to, implementing emissions targets and other methods to cost-effectively minimize and control greenhouse gas emissions.

(b) The commission shall submit annual reports to the legislature on recommended incentives and strategies for the reduction of greenhouse gas emission from public utilities that supply electricity and independent power producers that supply power to the electric utility grid."

SECTION 3. The commission shall conduct an investigation of methods to minimize and control greenhouse gas emissions from public utilities supplying electricity and independent power producers that supply power to the electric utility grid. This shall include, but is not limited to, an investigation of emission caps and trades, carbon taxes, carbon credits, emissions mitigation fees, and adequate methods for monitoring and verifying mitigation projects. The investigation shall incorporate evaluation of other states' and nations' attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power utilities and shall result in the commission's proposal of appropriate measures to ensure the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to section 269- , Hawaii Revised Statutes.

The commission shall submit a report on its investigation to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the 2006 regular session. The report shall include: the results of the investigation; the commission's recommendations, plans, and timetable for implementation of greenhouse gas emission reduction measures; and proposals for legislation that may be needed to implement greenhouse gas emission reduction.

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.