STAND. COM. REP. NO. 489

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 631

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Agriculture and Water, Land, and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 631 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RENEWABLE ENERGY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize renewable energy production as a permitted use on agricultural lands, whether or not agricultural activity is the primary activity of the renewable energy enterprise, and to allow solar energy facilities to be constructed on all classifications of agricultural lands.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Richard Lim, Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; David Tanoue, City and County of Honolulu, Department of Planning and Permitting; and Castle and Cooke Hawai‘i.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from Russell Kokubun, Department of Agriculture; Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation; Robert Harris, Sierra Club, Hawai‘i Chapter; Devin Bennett, Hawaii Pacific University Green Club; Anthony Aalto; Brian Bell; Bobby McClintock; Jane Yamashiro; Scott Hamilton; Marjorie Erway; Rick Warshauer; and Janice Palma-Glennie.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from David Louie, Department of the Attorney General; the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; and Mary Lou Kobayashi, Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, Office of Planning.

     Your Committees find that the development of renewable energy in Hawaii is vital to the energy security and the energy independence of the State.  Your Committees further find that allowing renewable energy facilities within the agricultural district furthers and is consistent with the purposes, standards, and criteria for uses within agricultural lands.  Renewable energy facilities increase the State's energy self sufficiency and agricultural sustainability.

     Your Committees recognize, however, that although renewable energy production is desirable and consistent with the purposes of agricultural land, the construction of renewable energy facilities on agricultural land should be limited to a certain extent in order to balance the need for energy security with the need for food security.

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Specifying that solar energy facilities are only permitted on agricultural lands with a productivity rating of B, C, D, or E and are not permitted on Important Agricultural Lands;

     (2)  Specifying further that solar energy facilities located on agricultural lands with a productivity rating of B or C shall occupy no more than ten percent of the acreage of the parcel;

     (3)  Deleting section 3 of the measure in order to preserve current statutory language regarding the use of certain agricultural lands for agricultural-energy facilities; and

     (4)  Amending the purpose section accordingly.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environment and Agriculture and Water, Land, and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 631, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 631, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Environment and Agriculture and Water, Land, and Housing,

____________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair	____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair
	____________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair