STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2309

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3056

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Economic Development, Tourism, and Technology and Transportation and Energy, to which was referred S.B. No. 3056 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HYDROELECTRICITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority to enable the authority to continue its efforts in producing hydroelectric power for the State.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority; Renewable Ocean Energy, Inc.; and Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committees find that electricity rates in Hawaii are among the highest in the nation and that there is a need to research different viable sources of energy to reduce electricity costs for residents of Hawaii. Your Committees further find that hydroelectricity is the lowest-cost form of renewable energy. The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority has received a proposal from a private organization with a patent-pending device that harnesses one of Hawaii's most plentiful resources, ocean water, to create energy. The patent-pending device is expected to reduce the cost of electricity and has the potential to help Hawaii achieve its goal of running on one hundred percent renewable energy years before the target date. Therefore, your Committees find it important to support the initiative to harness the power of ocean water and explore hydroelectricity more in depth.

Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development, Tourism, and Technology and Transportation and Energy that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3056, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3056, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development, Tourism, and Technology and Transportation and Energy,

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair