Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B. No. 1835 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to provide an environmentally friendly strategy for the lighting of Hawaii's airports, harbors, streets, and highways by requiring the Department of Transportation (DOT), to the extent practicable, to:

The University of Hawaii and Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter testified in support of this bill. DOT opposed this measure.

Your Committee finds that the use of fully shielded lighting fixtures will conserve energy and resources while maintaining appropriate outdoor lighting suitable for safety, utility, and security. These types of fixtures are also environmentally friendly.

While your Committee notes that stringent standards and requirements of applicable county ordinances already exist in the counties of Maui and Hawaii to protect the functions of the observatories atop Haleakala and Mauna Kea, light from airports and harbors, as well as light from Oahu, is threatening the ability of the observatories to study faint objects in the night sky.

Your Committee is also concerned that in oral testimony it was stated that about 50 percent of the H-3 freeway uses fully shielded light fixtures. However, in testimony on a previous bill (H.B. No. 2264) DOT stated that all of the light fixtures on H-3 were fully shielded. Your Committee respectfully requests that DOT provide information to the Committee regarding how many lights on the H-3 Freeway actually meet the fully shielded qualifications.

Although your Committee appreciates the fact that the installation of fully shielded lights has implications, this matter deserves further discussion. As such, your Committee has amended this bill by:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1835, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1835, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.