STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3491

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1170

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1170, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAND RESOURCES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide clarity and consistency in the statutory regulation of geothermal and mineral resources.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Department of Land and Natural Resources; and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Department of Land and Natural Resources is responsible for the regulation of geothermal resources in the State.  Through the issuance of geothermal resource mining leases and regulatory permits, the Department is tasked to manage the resource and its development to protect the health and safety of the public and ensure the continued viability of geothermal resources for future generations.  This measure reaffirms the State's responsibility over geothermal resources on state and reserved lands and provides consistency for geothermal resources among other renewable energy resources, such as wind, solar, hydropower, and biomass.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Adopting language suggested by the Department of Land and Natural Resources that provides clarity between the issuance of surface leases administered under chapter 171, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), and the issuance of mining leases administered under chapter 182, HRS; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1170, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1170, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair