STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3062

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2106

       H.D. 3

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 2106, H.D. 3, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Environmental Council to adopt and maintain rules requiring all environmental assessments and environmental impact statements prepared pursuant to chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to include consideration of sea level rise based on the best available scientific data regarding sea level rise.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Planning, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition, 350Hawaii.org, Surfrider Foundation, Friends of Hanauma Bay, Sierra Club of Hawaii, Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, and eight individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that sea level rise and other climate change hazards that could drastically impact the State and cause massive disruption are subjects of great concern.  The Hawaii Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission has already made findings relating to sea level rise and other climate change hazards in its "Hawaii Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report", and those findings should be incorporated into applicable state and county plans, strategies, and mapping.  Your Committees also find that the threat of sea level rise and other climate change hazards are such that consideration of such factors should be made at all levels of planning within the State.  Therefore, your Committees find that it is in the best interest of the State that environmental assessments and environmental impact statements include consideration of sea level rise.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2106, H.D. 3, 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 and Water and Land,

 

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair

 

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair