STAND. COM. REP. NO. 434

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 878

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 878 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLICATION OF HEARING NOTICES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to reduce administrative costs by allowing the Public Utilities Commission to streamline and update its notice process for public hearings on rate changes and ratemaking procedures. 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Division of Consumer Advocacy of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the Public Utilities Commission.  Copies of written testimony are available for review on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committee finds that the current law's requirement that the Public Utilities Commission publish notice of rate hearings in newspapers statewide is duplicative and unnecessary in the context of concurrent requirements that the Commission also provide notice via direct mailings to affected consumers.  Publishing hearing notices statewide is unnecessary for hearings that only affect utility consumers on certain islands. 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive changes to clarify the language of the measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 878, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 878, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair