STAND. COM. REP. NO.  37-12

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2012

RE:   H.B. No. 2484

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B. No. 2484 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTRIC VEHICLES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to continue to incentivize the use of electric vehicles and make the existing laws pertaining to electric vehicles more readily accessible to the general public by generally codifying the incentives for registration, licensing, parking, and the operation of electric vehicles which were established under Act 290, Session Laws of Hawaii 1997.

The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and Blue Planet Foundation testified in support of this measure.  The Department of Transportation, Department of Customer Services of the City and County of Honolulu, and Better Place, Inc., testified in support of the intent of this measure.  A concerned individual testified in opposition to this measure.

    Hawaii relies primarily on the consumption of imported oil to satisfy its energy needs.  Much of this imported oil is used for the production of gasoline to fuel internal combustion engines.  With over one million registered motor vehicles on Hawaii's roadways, the consumption of gasoline can be enormous.
    One possible mechanism to reduce the consumption of petroleum products is to promote the use of newer technologies in everyday life.  In 1997, the Legislature recognized that the emergence of alternatives to fossil-fueled vehicles had the potential to significantly reduce Hawaii's dependency on petroleum-based products and enacted legislation to incentivize the use of electric vehicles.  The Legislature intended that Act to increase the use of electric vehicles in Hawaii by providing incentives for the registration, licensing, parking, and operation of electric vehicles.  However, as this law was never statutorily codified, the general public could not readily and easily access it.  This measure addresses this issue.

    Your Committee has been informed that the registration of electric vehicles and issuance of electric vehicle license plates has been occurring since 1997, without the need for administrative rules and that requiring rules to be developed would unnecessarily delay continuation of the current registration and license plate process for electric vehicles.

    As such, your Committee has amended this measure by permitting rather than requiring the Department of Transportation to adopt administrative rules for the registration of, and issuance of special license plates for, electric vehicles.

    Your Committee has also made technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2484, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2484, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation,

____________________________

JOSEPH M. SOUKI, Chair