STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2680

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2516

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2516 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STATE HIGHWAYS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a goal within the Hawaii Department of Transportation for seventy-five percent of state highways to be covered with tree canopies by 2045.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i Public Health Institute, Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, Hawaii Bicycling League, and Climate Protectors Hawai‘i. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Transportation. Your Committees received comments on this measure from one individual.

Your Committees find that urban heat from the sun is a problem in Hawaii. Areas with asphalt and concrete are particularly susceptible. To reduce the exposure to the sun, this measure sets a goal of seventy-five percent of all state highways to be covered by tree canopy by 2045.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have set the goal of all state highways being seventy-five percent covered by tree canopy by 2045;

(2) Inserting language to establish various new environmentally focused standards for new highways or new highway modifications;

(3) Establishing a task force to guide the funding, implementation, and maintenance of the new highway construction standards; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2516, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2516, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair