Report Title:

Green Energy

Description:

Requires the public utilities commission to remove the fossil fuel quotient from renewable energy in determining the amount of energy that qualifies as renewable energy.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	50
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to energy.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  In Act 95, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, the legislature acknowledged that both biofuels and hydrogen could be produced, in part, with fossil fuels and that such part should not count toward renewable energy goals.  To that end the legislature amended the definition of "renewable energy" found in section 269-91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to include energy produced from biofuels derived from a combination of renewable and non-renewable sources, with the caveat that only the proportion of the biofuels created from renewable sources shall be credited as "renewable energy".

     During the 2006 regular session, the legislature amended this definition and, inadvertently, redefined biofuels in a way that would treat them as one hundred per cent renewable energy, regardless of the proportion of fossil fuel used to create them.

     The purpose of this Act is to amend the definition of "renewable energy" to refer to the energy content of the final fuel product, minus that proportion of non-renewable energy sources that were used to create the final fuel product.

     SECTION 2.  Section 269-91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "renewable energy" to read as follows:

     ""Renewable energy" means [energy generated or produced utilizing the following sources:

(1) Wind;

(2) The sun;

(3) Falling water;

(4) Biogas, including landfill and sewage-based digester gas;

(5) Geothermal;

(6) Ocean water, currents and waves;

(7) Biomass, including biomass crops, agricultural and animal residues and wastes, and municipal solid waste;

(8) Biofuels; and

(9) Hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources.]:

(1) Energy that is produced using a technology that relies upon a resource that is being consumed at a harvest rate at or below its natural regeneration rate;

(2) Where life cycle analysis or cradle to grave analysis is available, renewable energy refers to the energy content of the final product minus the energy content of the fossil fuel used at each step in the life cycle used to create the fuel and to dispose of the waste products; or

(3) Energy displacement using a technology that relies upon a resource that is being consumed at a harvest rate at or below its natural regeneration rate.

"Renewable energy" does not include, biofuels grown through the destruction of rainforests."

     SECTION 3.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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