STAND. COM. REP. NO.159-02

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: H.B. No. 2209

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy and Environmental Protection and Water and Land Use, to which was referred H.B. No. 2209 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of the bill is to preserve and protect Hawaii's environment by requiring environmental assessments for proposed:

(1) Developments within the Special Management Area that require a Special Management Area use permit as defined in section 205A-22, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

(2) Wastewater facilities, waste-to-energy facilities, landfills, oil refineries, power-generating facilities, and land having a development cost greater than $1,000,000

to be conducted.

The Office of Planning of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, the Office of Environment Quality Control, Life of the Land, the Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, and Hawaii's Thousand Friends testified in support of the measure. The Hawaiian Electric Company, Maui Electric Company, Hawaii Electric Light Company, Kauai Electric, and The Gas Company supported the intent of the bill. The Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii and the Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference opposed the measure.

Counties currently require environmental assessments for developments that require a Special Management Area use permit. This measure would ensure that environmental-assessment criteria are applied consistently throughout the counties. Your Committees find that environmental assessments provide information to the public and decision-makers about the environmental, social, cultural, and economic effects before they approve the facilities. Small projects with minimal environmental effects may be exempt under present law, and, therefore, the $1,000,000 development-cost criterion is unnecessary.

Your Committees have amended the measure by:

(1) Clarifying and expanding the purpose of the proposed bill;

(2) Deleting the condition that a proposed facility must have a development cost greater than $1,000,000 before being subjected to the requirement of an environmental assessment; and

(3) Making technical, non-substantive amendments for purposes of style, clarity, and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environmental Protection and Water and Land Use that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2209, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2209, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Environmental Protection and Water and Land Use,

 

____________________________

EZRA KANOHO, Chair

____________________________

HERMINA M. MORITA, Chair