STAND. COM. REP. NO. 331

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 421

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 421 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CARBON OFFSETS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish procedures for the Department of Transportation to assist and enable a person to voluntarily purchase a verified carbon offset for carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the person's air travel to or from an airport in the State.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation and the Hawai‘i Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Energy and Climate Action Committee of the Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, 350Hawaii.org, and four individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from Climate Protectors Hawaii.

Your Committees find that climate change is the most pressing issue of the current generation. Within the transportation sector, the air transportation component faces difficult technical challenges in reducing carbon dioxide emissions associated with air travel as air travel is essential to tourism and a key driver of the State's economy. While the Federal Aviation Administration implemented the carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation, this program does not apply to the State or continental United States. To achieve the State's clean energy goals, this measure authorizes the Department of Transportation to assist and enable individuals to purchase a verified carbon offset for carbon dioxide emissions resulting from air travel to or from the State.

Your Committees have amended this measure by clarifying that any revenue received by the State for carbon offsets shall be directed to the Department of Land and Natural Resources to be utilized for:

(A) Tree planting; or

(B) Other initiatives that proportionally increase carbon sequestration.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 421, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 421, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair