STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2249

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2715

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2715 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PETROLEUM INDUSTRY REPORTING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to suspend the reporting requirements of both the petroleum industry and the Public Utilities Commission under the Petroleum Industry Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting program until further action by the Legislature. 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Public Utilities Commission.  Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committees find that the Petroleum Industry Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting (PIMAR) program involves detailed and highly intensive collection of data regarding petroleum product imports, exports, inventories, production, retail and wholesale transactions, and gross margins.  Your Committees find that the reporting process is very time consuming for both the Public Utilities Commission and the petroleum industry.  Your Committees note that the PIMAR program has not revealed evidence of economic misbehavior in the petroleum market since its inception in September 2007.  Your Committees find that the suspension of PIMAR reporting requirements will allow the Public Utilities Commission to more efficiently allocate its resources in order to focus on higher priority regulatory matters and resource planning, especially regarding matters arising under the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative.  Finally, your Committees note that this measure allows the Legislature to easily take action in the future to reinstate the PIMAR program, should the need arise. 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2715 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Energy and Environment,

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair