HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

235

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the department of land and natural resources to give priority to state leases for agricultural and ranching operations over state leases for energy facility operation projects with respect to lease extensions and renewals.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, Act 31, Session Laws of Hawaii 2008, allows construction of solar energy facilities and related activities within agricultural districts that have soil classified by the land study bureau as overall (master) productivity rating class D or E; and

 

     WHEREAS, solar energy facilities have the potential to disrupt agricultural and ranching operations, in some cases ruining the soil for future agricultural use; and

 

     WHEREAS, if large industrial scale solar arrays are built, as they are likely to be in undeveloped areas, a potential impact is the loss of large amounts of useable agricultural land; and

 

     WHEREAS, the use of agricultural land for solar energy production would conceivably have no limitation in size and would not be required to be incidental or subordinate to an agricultural activity; and

 

     WHEREAS, solar energy, which remains a promising alterative source of electricity, is only one of the solutions to the energy crisis, while the State's agricultural and ranching operations provide the only source of non-imported food in the State; and

 

WHEREAS, by allowing solar energy facilities to potentially overrun useable agricultural land, this practice will only further diminish the agricultural industry that the State is desperately trying to protect; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Land and Natural Resources is requested to give priority to state leases for agricultural and ranching operations over state leases for energy facility operations with respect to lease extensions and renewals; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, and the Chairperson of the Board of Agriculture.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Agricultural Leases; Solar Energy Facilities