STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2578

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3103

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Labor and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 3103 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENERGY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require attestation or declaration regarding project labor standards for large-scale renewable energy projects, including state-approved apprenticeship programs and prevailing wage requirements.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Energy Office; Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters; Blue Planet Foundation; Moss & Associates, LLC; Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3; and Pacific Resource Partnership.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from Tesla.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from Hawaiian Electric.

Your Committees find that to replace the State's aging fossil fuel infrastructure and achieve the State's renewable energy mandate by 2045, a succession of large renewable energy projects will be needed over the next twenty years. This measure supports adherence to bedrock labor standards and bolsters apprenticeship, which is critical to ensuring the State's businesses and workers are equipped with the talent and skills needed to accomplish the State's visionary renewable energy mandate.

Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Labor and Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3103, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3103, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Labor and Technology,

________________________________ HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair

________________________________ LYNN DECOITE, Chair