STAND. COM. REP. NO. 217

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 988

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 988 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENERGY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require landlords and lessors of commercial real property to provide disclosure of energy costs to prospective tenants prior to execution of the rental agreement and, upon failure to do so, allow lessees to terminate the rental agreement without liability.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter and Blue Planet Foundation.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Land Use Research Foundation.

     Your Committees find that currently landlords and lessors of commercial real property are not required to disclose energy costs to prospective tenants and find that energy costs in the State are among the highest in the nation.  Your Committees find that prospective tenants of commercial real property have a right to know the energy costs associated with the rental of a commercial real property space prior to entering into a rental agreement in order to make a fully informed decision.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environment and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 988 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Environment and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair