STAND. COM. REP. NO.  647

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2009

RE:   H.B. No. 1273

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 1273 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENERGY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to allow the use of clotheslines on any privately owned single-family residential dwelling or townhouse.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Mililani Town Association, the Conservation Council for Hawaii, the Blue Planet Foundation, the Princeville at Hanalei Community Association, the Sierra Club--Hawaii Chapter, the Community Associations Institute--Hawaii Chapter, the Windward Ahupua‘a Alliance, and two individuals.  Testimony in opposition to the measure was received from the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii.  The Hawaii Association of Realtors and one individual submitted comments on the measure.

     Your Committees find that electric clothes dryers can consume over ten per cent of a household's energy demand.  Reducing the use of clothes dryers will substantially decrease the amount of fossil fuel electricity that Hawaii households may use in order to save on household expenses.  Your Committees further find that this measure requires a reasonable balance between aesthetic concerns and energy-saving and cost-saving behaviour.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Adding a new section containing legislative findings and purpose;

     (2)  Setting out the clothesline provisions as a new section to the chapter on energy resources rather than as an amendment to a section in the same chapter on the placement of solar energy devices;

     (3)  Deleting the conforming amendment to the tax laws on tax credits for renewable energy technologies; and

     (4)  Making necessary conforming technical amendments.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1273, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1273, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Housing,

____________________________ RIDA CABANILLA, Chair

____________________________ HERMINA MORITA, Chair