STAND. COM. REP. NO. 132

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 699

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 699 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY CONTROL,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish filing fees for environmental review documents to help fund the operations of the Office of Environmental Quality Control and to set up a special fund for the Office with the fees.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from David Lane Henkin, Earthjustice; Sierra Club, Hawai‘i Chapter; and Denise Antolini.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from David Arakawa, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from Loretta J. Fuddy, Department of Health; William T. Aila, Jr., Department of Land and Natural Resources; and Kalbert K. Young, Department of Budget and Finance.

     Your Committee finds that the Office of Environmental Quality Control is critically underfunded and that this measure is necessary for the Office to modernize and to fulfill its duties of overseeing the State's environmental review process.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Replacing the phrase "environmental impact statement publication notice" with the phrase "environmental impact statement preparation notice" for accuracy; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 699, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 699, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy and Environment,

____________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair