SB856 SD1

SECTION 1. The legislature recognizes that the natural energy laboratory of Hawaii authority was created with the intent to facilitate research and development of natural energy resources and ocean-related research. In recent years, the natural energy laboratory of Hawaii authority has received a mandate from the administration to work toward self-sufficiency. As the natural energy laboratory of Hawaii authority strives to achieve this goal, there is concern that the land resources under its control may be developed in ways that do not promote its original purpose, specifically, by allowing the construction of commercial hotels and transient accommodations.

The purpose of this Act is to reaffirm the purpose of the natural energy laboratory of Hawaii authority as a facility for natural energy resource and development, and to emphasize that as it works toward self-sufficiency, its land resources are to be used in ways that further its original goals.

SECTION 2. Section 227D-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) There is established the natural energy laboratory of Hawaii authority, which shall be a body corporate and politic and an instrumentality and agency of the State. The authority shall be placed within the department of business, economic development, and tourism for administrative purposes, pursuant to section 26-35. The purpose of the natural energy laboratory of Hawaii authority shall be to facilitate research, development, and commercialization of natural energy resources and ocean-related research, technology, and industry in Hawaii and to engage in retail, commercial, or tourism activities that will financially support that research, development, and commercialization at a research and technology park in Hawaii. Its duties shall include:

(1) Establishing, managing, and operating facilities that provide sites for:

(A) Research and development;

(B) Commercial projects and businesses utilizing natural resources, such as ocean water or geothermal energy;

(C) Compatible businesses engaged in scientific and technological investigations, or retail, commercial, and tourism activities; and

(D) Businesses or educational facilities that support the primary projects and activities;

(2) Providing support, utilities, and other services to facility tenants and government agencies;

(3) Maintaining the physical structure of the facilities;

(4) Promoting and marketing these facilities;

(5) Promoting and marketing the reasonable utilization of available natural resources;

(6) Supporting ocean research and technology development projects that support national and state interests, use facilities and infrastructure in Hawaii, and foster potential commercial development; and

(7) Engaging in retail, commercial, and tourism activities that are not related to facilitating research, development, and commercialization of natural energy resources in Hawaii; provided that the natural energy laboratory of Hawaii authority shall not use or authorize the use of its real property in the vicinity of its facilities for construction or development of hotels or transient accommodations; and further provided that all income derived from these activities shall be deposited in the natural energy laboratory of Hawaii authority special fund."

SECTION 3. Section 227D-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§227D-3 Powers of the authority. The authority may:

(1) Sue and be sued;

(2) Have a seal and alter the same at its pleasure;

(3) Promote the use of the geothermal energy and natural resources sites for the purposes provided by law;

(4) Through its executive director appoint officers, agents and employees without regard to chapter 76 and to establish the salaries therefor;

(5) Adopt rules under chapter 91 necessary to effectuate this chapter in connection with its operation, facilities, parks, properties, and projects;

(6) Make, execute, enter into, amend, supplement, and carry out contracts and all other instruments necessary or convenient for the exercise of its powers and functions under this chapter with any private person, firm, partnership, association, company, or corporation only as it may be necessary in the conduct of its business and on such terms as it may deem appropriate; provided that the authority shall not obligate any funds of the State except as have been appropriated to it. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the authority may enter into and perform such contracts, leases, cooperative agreements, or other transactions with any agency or instrumentality of the United States, a foreign nation, a state, a territory, or a possession, or with any political subdivision thereof;

(7) Accept, hold, or expend gifts or grants in any form from any public agency or private source, or from any other source;

(8) Impose and collect fees pertaining to the use of properties and facilities of the authority;

(9) Formulate budgets to provide for the operation of the facilities of the authority;

(10) Submit an annual report to the governor and the legislature at least twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session;

(11) Acquire, own, lease, hold, clear, improve, and rehabilitate real, personal, or mixed property and assign, exchange, transfer, convey, lease, sublease, or encumber any project including by way of easements; provided that the authority shall not lease property where the purpose of the lease is for the construction by the lessee or a subsequent assignee of a hotel or other transient accommodations;

(12) Construct, reconstruct, rehabilitate, improve, alter, or repair, or provide for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, improvement, alteration, or repair of any project and designate a qualified person as its agent for this purpose, and own, hold, assign, transfer, convey, exchange, lease, sublease, or encumber any project; provided that the authority shall not construct or provide for the construction of hotels or other transient accommodation;

(13) Arrange or initiate appropriate action for the planning, replanning, opening, grading, or closing of streets, roads, roadways, alleys, easements, or other places, the furnishings or improvements, the acquisition of property or property rights, or the furnishing of property or services in connection with a research and technology park;

(14) Prepare or cause to be prepared plans, specifications, designs, and estimates of cost for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, improvement, alteration, or repair of any project or research and technology park, and from time to time, modify these plans, specifications, designs, or estimates;

(15) Engage the services of consultants on a contractual basis for rendering professional and technical assistance and advice;

(16) Procure insurance against any loss in connection with its properties and other assets and operations in amounts and from insurers as it deems desirable;

(17) Issue bonds pursuant to this chapter in principal amounts as may be authorized from time to time by law to finance the cost of a project, including the repair or addition to its parks and facilities as authorized by law and to provide for the security thereof as permitted by this chapter;

(18) Lend or otherwise apply the proceeds of the bonds issued for a project or a research and technology park either directly or through a trustee or a qualified person for use and application in the acquisition, construction, installation, or modification of a project or research and technology park, or agree with the qualified person whereby any of these activities shall be undertaken or supervised by that qualified person or by a person designated by the qualified person;

(19) With or without terminating a project agreement, exercise any and all rights provided by law for entry and re-entry upon or to take possession of a project at any time or from time to time upon breach or default by a qualified person under a project agreement;

(20) Create an environment that supports appropriate natural resource utilization and results in economic development, including: supporting research projects and facilitating the transition from research and development to pilot scale and then to full commercial operation of companies utilizing the natural resources available at the research and technology parks; developing educational and conservation programs; supporting commercialization of the natural resources available at the research and technology parks, if the commercialization is compatible with the research, development, and other retail, commercial, and tourism activities of the research and technology parks; identifying issues and impediments to the development of natural resource utilization; and providing policy analysis and information important to the development of natural resource utilization in Hawaii;

(21) Develop programs that support projects and companies [~~which~~] that locate at the research and technology parks;

(22) Attract appropriate new uses of the natural resources in Hawaii, including retail, commercial, and tourism activities; provided that the authority shall place minimal emphasis on attracting retail, commercial, and tourism activities that have no relation to natural resource use in Hawaii; and

(23) Do any or all other acts reasonably necessary to carry out the purposes of the authority."

SECTION 4. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2030.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	856
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII