STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2967

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2620

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Higher Education and Energy and Environment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2620, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require and appropriate funds for the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program to submit a report to the Legislature updating its 1996 report on oil spills.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

     Your Committees find that in 1996, the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program issued a report, "Hawaii's Readiness to Prevent and Respond to Oil Spills".  The report has not been updated since it was first released.

     The recent molasses spill in Honolulu Harbor highlights the need to update the report and prepare a spill prevention plan for the State.  This measure requires the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program to submit to the Legislature an update of its 1996 report and provides the necessary resources to the Sea Grant College Program.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2014; and

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2620, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2620, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Higher Education and Energy and Environment,

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair