STAND. COM. REP. NO. 164-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: H.B. No. 2012

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 2012 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTRIC VEHICLE PARKING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Remove an exemption that allows owners of multiple parking facilities to electrify fewer parking spaces than required in one or more properties if they fulfill the requirement in aggregate spaces on all of their owned properties; and

(2) Authorize counties to regulate electric vehicle charging systems for places of public accommodation with fewer than one hundred parking spaces.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Energy Office; Hawaiian Electric; and Hawaii Electric Vehicle Association. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Retail Merchants of Hawaii and NAIOP Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that every county in the State has committed to one hundred percent clean energy transportation by 2045, necessitating the rapid transition to zero-emission vehicles. While Act 75, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021, allows counties to enforce minimum requirements for electric vehicle charging spaces, owners of multiple parking facilities are allowed to electrify fewer parking spaces than required in one or more of their properties if the requirement for the total number of aggregate spaces is met. Your Committee further finds that this makes enforcement difficult as counties lack the capacity to determine whether a property owner is in compliance due to the fact that the property owner could be fulfilling the aggregate requirement with electric vehicle charging spaces in multiple different counties. Your Committee believes that this measure addresses this need by removing that loophole and providing counties the clear authority to regulate electric vehicle charging systems, including maintenance requirements, in certain parking lots with fewer than one hundred stalls.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2012, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2012, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection,

____________________________

NICOLE E. LOWEN, Chair