STAND. COM. REP. NO.  244-12

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2012

RE:   H.B. No. 2671

      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 Committees on Water, Land, & Ocean Resources and Energy & Environmental Protection and Agriculture, to which was referred H.B. No. 2671 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Office of Planning to convene a working group which may be facilitated by a private contractor, to establish guidelines for the Hawaii Statewide Sustainability Partnership and to appropriate funds for this purpose.

The University of Hawaii, Department of Agriculture, Office of Planning, Office of the Mayor of the County of Maui, the Sustainability Manager of the County of Kauai, Best Practice Planning, Hawaii Green Growth Initiative, The Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i, Ola Hawaii 2020, and several concerned individuals testified in support of this measure.  The Land Use Research Foundation opposed this measure.  The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii provided comments.

     Your Committees find that although the University of Hawaii Public Policy Center made recommendations to the Legislature in response to Act 181, Session Laws of Hawaii 2011, those comments were not included in the original draft of this measure.  In addition, the original draft of this measure failed to restrict the number of members for the working group.  Finally, your Committees recognize that in order for Hawaii to become truly sustainable, support for the agricultural industry must occur by ensuring that agricultural activities are allocated adequate water resources.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting the major recommendations of the University of Hawaii Public Policy Center, which are to convene a Hawaii Statewide Sustainability Partnership and to appropriate funds to the Office of Planning to support development of statewide sustainability and measures of accountability, including benchmarks, indicators, data, and data sources;

     (2)  Limiting the number of members for the Hawaii Statewide Sustainability Partnership to eleven members;

     (3)  Outlining the duties of the Hawaii Statewide Sustainability Partnership, which include the design and organization of a collaborative public-private entity that shall be responsible for coordinating the implementation of sustainability guidelines and priorities;

     (4)  Reiterating the importance of agriculture to the State and its self-sufficiency objectives, as set forth in the State Constitution and reaffirming that agricultural activities are a public trust use;

     (5)  Requiring that the Hawaii State Sustainability Partnership prepare a report containing findings and recommendations, including a finding as to whether water allocations for agriculture are sufficient to support agriculture in the State; and

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, & Ocean Resources and Energy & Environmental Protection and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2671, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2671, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Higher Education.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, & Ocean Resources and Energy & Environmental Protection and Agriculture,

____________________________ DENNY COFFMAN, Chair	____________________________ JERRY L. CHANG, Chair
	____________________________ CLIFT TSUJI, Chair