Bill Text: HI SB2782 | 2010 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Energy Security; Petroleum, Coal, and Nuclear Power Plants

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-12 - (S) Report adopted; Passed Second Reading and referred to JGO. [SB2782 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2010-SB2782-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2234

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2782

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2782 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE XI, SECTION 8 OF THE HAWAII CONSTITUTION, TO PROHIBIT THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW PETROLEUM, COAL, AND NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN THE STATE WITHOUT THE PRIOR APPROVAL OF TWO-THIRDS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to propose a constitutional amendment to ban the construction of any new petroleum, coal, or nuclear power plants within the State without the approval of two-thirds of each house of the Legislature.

 

     Testimony in support of the measure was submitted by three organizations and one individual.  One organization submitted comments.  Testimony in opposition was submitted by one state agency and one organization.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     The Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative has conducted various scenario analyses on how to achieve our seventy per cent clean energy goal by 2030.  The notion that a transition involving new fossil fuel generating units must occur is not supported by the rigorous analysis of Hawaii's energy systems.  Any new coal or petroleum power plant would make achievement of the energy goal by 2030 substantially more difficult, as any new fossil fuel generating units installed in the future will have a useful lifetime of thirty to fifty years or more.  Your Committee finds that passage of this constitutional amendment will ensure that discussions of Hawaii's energy future occur at the highest policy level, helping to ensure that Hawaii moves toward a clean energy future.

 

     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. 2782 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.

 

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

 

		____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair