Report Title:
Government Mineral Rights; Geothermal Royalties
Description:
Raises share of geothermal royalties for counties from 30 per cent to 50 per cent.
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
2241 |
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TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to government mineral rights.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that currently, thirty per cent of royalties received by the State from geothermal resources are paid to the county in which mining operations are situated. In 1999-2000, the county of Hawaii received $148,915 from royalties paid by Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV). PGV is located twenty-one miles south of Hilo and is situated on about twenty-five acres of a five hundred-acre plot along the Lower East Rift Zone of the Kilauea Volcano.
The legislature further finds that while PGV currently uses a relatively small area, the thirty per cent of the PGV royalties paid to the county of Hawaii may be used for services and programs in the entire county.
The legislature finds that a significant portion of geothermal royalties should be made available for government services near the location of the resource as a means to mitigate negative impacts on the surrounding residents.
The purpose of this Act is to raise from thirty per cent to fifty per cent the county's portion of all royalties received from geothermal resources.
SECTION 2. Section 182-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:
"(c) The payments to the State as fixed by the board shall be specified; provided that:
(1) In the case of bauxite, bauxitic clay, gibbsite, diaspore, boehmite, and all ores of aluminum, the amount of royalties for each long dry ton of ore as beneficiated shall not be less than [twenty-five] 25 cents or the equivalent of the price of one pound of virgin pig aluminum, whichever is higher, nor shall it exceed the equivalent of the price of three pounds of virgin pig aluminum;
(2) The rate of royalty for ore processed into aluminous oxide in the State shall be set at eighty per cent of the rate of royalty for ore not processed to aluminous oxide in the State; and
(3) The royalty shall be fixed at a rate which will tend to encourage the establishment and continuation of the mining industry in the State.
The prices of virgin pig aluminum for the purpose of determining the royalties under this section shall be the basic price on the mainland United States market for virgin pig, not refined, f.o.b. factory. The royalties shall be in lieu of any severance or other similar tax on the extracting, producing, winning, beneficiating, handling, storing, treating, or transporting of the mineral or any product into which it may be processed in the State, and shall not be subject to reopening or renegotiating for and during the first twenty years of the lease term.
In the event the lessee desires to mine other minerals, the lessee, before mining the minerals, shall so notify the board in writing, and the board and the lessee shall negotiate and fix the royalties for the minerals.
Any other law to the contrary notwithstanding, [thirty] fifty per cent of all royalties received by the State from geothermal resources shall be paid to the county in which mining operations covered under a state geothermal resource mining lease are situated."
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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