STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2519

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2001

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2001 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PUBLIC LAND TRUST,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the Hawaii State Planning Act to include promoting the development of geothermal energy resources that are located on public trust land as a source of firm power and ensure that the development of energy resources on public trust land directly benefits Native Hawaiians and public beneficiaries of the trust.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce, Innovations Development Group, Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, and four individuals.

     Your Committees find that this measure is consistent with the State's goals and initiatives to promote renewable energy resources.  Further, renewable energy resources are assets of the public trust but have not been recognized or developed by the State as public trust assets.  Renewable resources within the trust include geothermal, tidal, wave, and ocean thermal energy conversion energy resources located on submerged lands.  Specifically, for over seventeen years, geothermal resources have been developed for electricity on the island of Hawaii.  Although these are public trust assets, their development has never brought a real or direct benefit to the resident beneficiaries.

     Trust law requires the State, as trustee of these renewable energy assets, to ensure that there is a direct benefit for the beneficiaries of the public trust land who are Native Hawaiians and the public.

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by clarifying that indigenous renewable energy resources, not just geothermal energy resources, located on public trust land should be promoted and developed for the benefits of Native Hawaiians and public beneficiaries of the trust.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2001, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2001, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

____________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair