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THE SENATE |
S.C.R. NO. |
23 |
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TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009 |
S.D. 1 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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SENATE CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION
EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR PROMOTING AND ACCELERATING THE INCREASED USE AND DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE POWER GENERATION THROUGH FEED-IN TARIFFS, AND REQUESTING THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION TO ADOPT AND IMPLEMENT TRUE FEED-IN TARIFFS FOR CLEAN ENERGY SYSTEMS UP TO TWENTY MEGAWATTS IN SIZE.
WHEREAS, the State of Hawaii and the United States Department of Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2008 to launch the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative with the goals of meeting at least seventy per cent of Hawaii's energy needs with clean and indigenous renewable energy resources by 2030, providing long-term economic and environmental benefits to the people of Hawaii including price stability and lower energy costs in the long-term, energy security, and economic growth and diversification; and
WHEREAS, the State of Hawaii and the Hawaiian Electric companies entered into the Energy Agreement Among the State of Hawaii, Division of Consumer Advocacy of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and the Hawaiian Electric Companies (the "Voluntary Energy Agreement") on October 20, 2008, to move decisively and irreversibly away from imported fossil fuel for electricity and transportation and towards indigenously produced and renewable energy and an ethic of energy efficiency, and in doing so, agreed to promote and accelerate the use and development of renewable power generation and technologies through changes to the regulatory framework, such as the implementation of a decoupling mechanism and feed-in tariffs; and
WHEREAS, the Public Utilities Commission initiated Docket No. 2008-0273 (the "Docket") on October 24, 2008 to investigate and evaluate the design and implementation of feed‑in tariffs in accordance with the Voluntary Energy Agreement; and
WHEREAS, feed-in tariffs have been proven to be an effective tool in fostering the development of renewable power generation and technologies by providing certainty and stability to the purchased power rates and the project developer's revenue stream, as well as a more transparent and streamlined utility procurement and interconnection process; and
WHEREAS, feed-in tariffs can help businesses engaged in the development of renewable energy resources and technologies, as well as customer-sited distributed generation; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Legislature hereby expresses support for promoting and accelerating the increased use and development of renewable power generation through feed‑in tariffs, which will provide significant economic and environmental incentives and yield economic and environmental benefits and opportunities; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature hereby urges the Public Utilities Commission to adopt and implement true feed-in tariffs for clean energy systems up to twenty megawatts in size, which will help the utilities fulfill their renewable energy commitments in the Voluntary Energy Agreement and increase and accelerate the utilities' procurement and integration of renewable power generation and technologies to the maximum extent possible in order to significantly decrease Hawaii's dependence on imported fossil fuel; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature hereby makes manifest its support for the perpetuation of the highly successful net metering program in tandem with a feed-in tariff; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Public Utilities Commission, the Executive Director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Division of Consumer Advocacy, and Docket intervenors.
Feed-In Tariffs; Public Utilities Commission