Bill Text: HI SB2038 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Energy; Solar Water Heater; Conservation; Kauai County Package

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-02-17 - (S) Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WLH. [SB2038 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2038-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2407

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2038

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2038 entitled:

 

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

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require solar water heaters in new duplex dwellings and limit the circumstances in which a variance for a demand water heater may be granted. 

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Kauai County Council, Sierra Club, Hawaii Solar Energy Association, Blue Planet Foundation, Palms Hawaii Architecture, and four individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Building Industry Association of Hawaii, and The Gas Company.

 

     Your Committee finds that the administration of the solar water heater requirement has proven unusually difficult.  Since the counties are directly affected by variances and keenly aware of local conditions, the counties may be better able to provide oversight of the variance process.  

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Transferring administration of solar water heater variance applications from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to the county permitting agencies;

 

     (2)  Deleting language limiting the persons who may apply for a variance for a tankless, gas water heater to the occupant of the new house;

 

     (3)  Inserting new language in section 196-6.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, that allows the legislative body of each county to set the parameters by which its county permitting agency shall approve, disapprove, or approve with conditions any variance application; and

 

     (4)  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 Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2038, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2038, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Water, Land, and Housing.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy and Environment,

 

		____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair