Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy, Environment, and International Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1557 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Public Utilities Commission to provide that the rate for purchase of electricity by a public utility shall not be less than 100 percent of the cost avoided by the utility when the utility purchases electrical energy. The measure also increases future percentages for renewable portfolio standards for electric utilities.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Sierra Club, Hawaii PV Coalition, Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning, LLC, and PowerLight Corporation. Hawaiian Electric Company testified in opposition. The Public Utilities Commission provided comments.

Your Committee finds that this measure refines the provisions of Act 95, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, by strengthening provisions for the fostering of renewable energy. Specifically, it specifies that the rate for the purchase of electricity shall not be less than one hundred per cent of the cost avoided by the utility, and it increases the renewable energy portfolio standards to twenty per cent by December 31, 2015 and thirty per cent by December 31, 2020.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive changes for clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy, Environment, and International Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1557, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1557, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing.