STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2135

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2198

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2198 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RENEWABLE FUELS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a renewable fuels task force to perform a feasibility study involving locally produced renewable fuels and report its findings and recommendations to the Legislature.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Renewable Energy Alliance and Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.

     Your Committees find that the intent of the ten percent ethanol requirement enacted by Act 257, Session Laws of Hawaii 1997, and codified as section 486J-10, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is to provide energy independence from foreign oil, reduce statewide gasoline consumption, and establish industrial plants to produce ethanol locally.  Despite several planned ethanol plants and an abundance of vacant sugar cane land, no plants have been built, leaving the intent of Act 257 unfulfilled.  Further investigation and study are needed since different requirements for diesel fuel may be necessary, as gasoline with ethanol or other biofuels are not an equal substitute for biodiesel because of mechanical and warranty issues involved with diesel engines.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environment and Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2198 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Environment and Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing,

____________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair