STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2085

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2746

       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 Transportation and International Affairs and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2746 entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to codify Act 290, Session Laws of Hawaii 1997, relating to electric vehicles, which provides incentives for registration, licensing, parking, and operation of electric vehicles.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the State Department of Transportation; Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Honolulu Licensing Administrator; Blue Planet Foundation; Better Place, Inc.; and one individual.  Testimony in opposition was submitted by the Sierra Club Hawai‘i Chapter.

     Your Committees find that although the laws relating to electric vehicle licensing and parking are valid laws of Hawaii, they are difficult to find and reference because they are only contained in the session laws, which are not as readily available to the public as are the Hawaii Revised Statutes, which are available online.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Authorizing, rather than requiring, the Department of Transportation to adopt rules for electric vehicle registration and special license plates, since electric vehicles are currently being registered with special license plates without the adoption of administrative rules; and

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2746, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2746, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Energy and Environment,

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair