STAND. COM. REP. NO. 422

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1207

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment, Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, and Transportation and Energy, to which was referred S.B. No. 1207 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAKE WILSON,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Agribusiness Development Corporation for a study to be conducted in cooperation with the United States Army Corps of Engineers on the merits of acquiring Lake Wilson dam and spillway to develop pumped-storage hydroelectricity, provided that the federal government makes a dollar-for-dollar match.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Agribusiness Development Corporation; Hawai‘i Farm Bureau; American Society of Civil Engineers; Life of the Land; and two individuals.

     Your Committees find that renewable energy is important to the State's energy goals, and hydroelectric facilities can serve as a feasible alternative energy source to meet these goals.  Your Committees further find that the study proposed by this measure may provide valuable insight into the broader development of pumped-storage hydroelectricity throughout the State.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment, Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, and Transportation and Energy that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1207 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment, Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, and Transportation and Energy,

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair	________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair
	________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair