House Standing Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection

Alright. Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection. I'm here with my Vice Chair, Rep Perruso. It is Thursday, February 6, 9am in room 325. A little bit of housekeeping first. Because morning committees have to adjourn before floor session, not all testifiers may have the opportunity to testify.

In that event, please know your written testimony is considered by the committee. For anyone on Zoom, please keep yourself muted and video off while waiting to testify and after your testimony is complete. Zoom chat is only to chat with technical staff. If you're disconnected unexpectedly, you can rejoin.

And if disconnected while presenting testimony, you can continue if time permits. Please note the house is not responsible for bad Internet connections on the testifier's end. In the event of a ne- network failure on our end, it may be necessary to reschedule the hearing or schedule a meeting for decision making.

And in that case we will notice it appropriately. Please avoid using trademarked or copyrighted images and please refrain from profanity or uncivil behavior. I think that goes without saying. Okay. First on the agenda this morning we have House Bill 977 relating to energy financing specific gives additional funding to HDIA.

First up to testify we have the Consumer Advocate.

Thank you. And next we have Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority.

Morning Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, [inaudible].

Than- Thank you. Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Commission. Thank you. And then we have testimony from Sierra Club of Hawaii in support we have Ted Bohlen.

Thank you. Chair Lowen, Vice Chair Perruso and the Environmental Energy and Environment Protection Committee speaking on behalf of the Climate Protectors Hawaii in strong support of this bill. There are people who want to put in rooftop solar photovoltaic with storage, but they can't afford to do it.

This bill would provide capital for the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority to finance low interest loans for underserved ratepayers from the Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Revolving Loan Fund. Underserved ratepayers include state and local governments, low and moderate income homeowners, renters, nonprofits, small businesses and multifamily projects. These loans would be repaid using on bill financing.

This is a good bill and I hope you will pass it forward. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And then we have Solaray Corporation in support. Shifted Energy in support. Alternate Energy Hawaii in support. HNU Energy in support. 350 Hawaii in support and five individuals in support. Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? If not, questions? Seeing none.

We will move on to House Bill 1295 relating to state- to clean energy. This is requiring state and county agencies to use federal energy tax credits, presumably if they continue to exist. First up we have Public Utilities Commission.

[inaudible testimony]

Standing on testimony. And then we have one individual in support. Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? Members, any discussion or questions? Alright. Seeing none, we'll move on to the next bill on the agenda. House Bill 1051 relating to energy efficiency portfolio standards. I think we're all familiar with this bill by now.

First up, we have the Consumer Advocate.

[inaudible testimony]

Thank you, Public Utilities Commission.

[inaudible testimony]

Thank you, State Energy Office.

[inaudible testimony]

Standing on testimony. Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission? Standing on testimony. Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority?

[inaudible testimony]

Standing on testimony. We have County of Kauai in support. Hawaii Energy.

Hawaii Energy also stands on our testimony in support.

Standing on testimony. We have Hawaiian Electric.

[inaudible testimony]

Thank you. Then we also have testimony from Ulupono Initiative also in support. 350 Hawaii in support and three individuals in support and one in opposition. Members, is there anyone else here to testify on this bill? Members questions? Great. Alright. We're very efficient today. Moving on to House Bill 1019 relating to long duration clean energy storage.

First up to testify. We have DBAT in support. Energy office.

Chair, Mark Glick from the Energy Office. We stand in our testimony in strong support of this passage.

Thank you. Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies in support. Not here. Hawaii Gas in support and one individual in support. Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? Seeing no one. Members questions? Alright. Seeing none, we will move on to House Bill 344 relating to electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

First step to testify is Department of Transportation on Zoom. They present.

Not present.

Not present. Oh, okay. Go ahead.

Aloha, Chair and Vice Chair, committee members. Laura Kaakua for DOT. The Department of Transportation supports this measure. It aligns with our DOT highways modes, current efforts to expand EV charging infrastructure- infrastructure statewide. And we stand on our testimony in support. Mahalo.

Thank you. And then we have DAGS with comments in person.

Hi, Good morning. Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, my name is Joseph Earing. I'm with DAGS, Public Works Division.

I think. Sorry, you're close, so go ahead and come up to the podium.

My name is Joseph Earing with the Department of Accounting and General Services, Public Works Division on behalf of Comptroller Keith Regan. We stand on our written testimony providing comments and I'm available For questions.

Thank you. And then Energy Office in support.

[inaudible testimony]

Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization in support. We have Hawaiian Electric.

[inaudible testimony]

Thank you. And then we have Ulupono Initiative in support. Ted Bohlen in support.

Thank you. Chair, Vice Chair and the committee. Ted Bohlen for the Climate Protectors Hawaii in strong support of this bill, the state has the opportunity to lead.

As we move into a time when there are electric vehicles, it will be a lot cheaper to- for the state to install charging facilities in parking spaces as opposed to doing it after the fact when people demand it. And it costs a lot more to retrofit.

This will also save employees money, a benefit for employees and it will help the state move toward its climate neutral goals and by 2045 to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases because electric vehicles will be making up a big part of that. So strong support for this bill. Please pass it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Then we have 350 Hawaii in support. Green Party of Hawaii in support. Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii in support. Kauai Climate Action Coalition in support. RE Rides EV LLC in support. Alliance for Automotive Innovation in Support. And 20 additional individuals all in support. Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure?

Seeing no one. Members, any questions? I have a question for DAGS. I think maybe the Energy Office after. There was testimony from OMPO recommending that we add to that requirement for new construction, also including secure bike parking, bike lockers and showers. What do you think? I mean, you may not know, but I would imagine I don't know.

What do you think the cost, additional cost for that would be or what are your thoughts on that requirement?

Offhand, I don't know what cost that would entail. We do our best to provide bike racks and the like at our facilities so we could try and get some sort of number if that's required.

Okay, I'm just curious. I don't think I'll amend the bill to include it because the bill title is very specific to EV infrastructure. But just was an interesting thought. It makes- It might make sense to start thinking in that direction. Okay, thank you. Any other questions, members?

Okay, I guess we'll move on to House Bill 733 relating to electric vehicle parking. So this is the Bill that would remove the exemption allowing the law to put a parking stall per 100 parking stalls to aggregate that to a different site. First up we have Hawaii State Energy Office. Thank you, Hawaii Energy in support.

Retail Merchants of Hawaii on Zoom, not present. Hawaii Electric Vehicle Association in support. Lulupono Initiative in support. Ted Bolen in support. 350 Hawaii in support. And one individual, Doug Perrine in support. Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? Members, questions? Okay, I guess maybe for Energy Office.

I don't know if you're the right person to ask but do you know how often this happens? That part us the charging stall is installed at a different location and specifically like on a different island.

Because I think that's also part of the the issue that we want them to remain at least in the county where the requirement was triggered.

Unfortunately, I do not have the answer. To that, but I can try and. See if we can get data on that. I'm not 100% sure if we do have access to that sort of data. But we can definitely try.

Would it be DAGS that has the data or who would have the data if not you?

Thanks. If you can see if you can find it would be interesting. And then same question for DAGS.

Perhaps DAGS I think. But I'm not sure. Yeah.

Could you repeat the question just.

Yeah. There's a current existing law that requires per hundred parking stalls for larger size lots that there's one that's for EV charging but the law allows the person responsible for installing it to do it at a different location basically.

And what that's led to sometimes is those being taken away from neighbor islands or sort of being all at one location in Hilo, not Kona or things like that.

We haven't taken a position on that. But it would probably be best to provide it at each facility going forward.

I guess the question I have is would DAGS have the data on how often that's happened? Like who would have the data on how often it's happened that the EV parking has been moved to a different location.

We could perhaps look for our own facilities. As far as other facilities, we wouldn't have information. I could check with our Automotive management division for if they have that kind of information.

Okay, thank you. I appreciate it. Alright, we will move on. No questions. Okay. House Bill 242 relating to electric vehicle batteries. This establishes a working group to recommend- make recommendations for reuse and recycling of evidence EV batteries. And first up to testify we have Department of Health.

Good morning Chair Lowen and members of the committee. My name is Noa Klein. I'm with the Solid and Hazardous Waste branch in the Department of Health Environmental Management Administration. The department will stand on its written testimony and support and I'm just here to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. And Hawaii- Hawaii State Energy Office.

[inaudible testimony]

Thank you. And then we have County of Hawaii Department of Environmental Management in support. Sierra Club of Hawaii in support. RADIUS Recycling in support. Hawaii EV Association in support. Climate Protectors Hawaii in support. Redwood Materials in support. Alliance for Automotive Innovation in support. And then we have five individuals all in support.

Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? Members, any questions? Sorry, what was that?

Redwood.

Oh, okay. Please go ahead. We have Redwood Materials on Zoom.

Hey, so sorry. Thank you. Good morning, chair, members of the committee, My name is Daniel Zotos. I'm with Redwood Materials. We are actually the largest lithium ion battery recycler in North America.

We're based out of Northern Nevada, although we've done a lot of work in Hawaii including working with the EPA on the Maui Wildfire response and actually moving burnt out EV batteries to our facility and properly processing them and recycling them. We're very supportive of this measure. We were last session as well.

I've been in touch with the bill sponsor. We are asking and I'd appreciate any input on how we could achieve this. Just for a very simple language addition to include a specialized battery recycler on this commission. As the bill is currently drafted,

there's some really good membership provisions, but it actually doesn't account for any downstream partners, companies like Redwood that are actually doing this work of material recovery. So we had a positive conversation with the bill sponsor.

He told me to, you know, work with committee staff and hopefully bring a simple language amendment to add that entity to this commission. So overall, very supportive. We're doing this work operationally. Happy to work with the State of Hawaii on this topic as well.

But also just respectfully ask that it would be great if we could include language to include entities like Redwood formally on this commission. So that's our ask and appreciate your time and also happy to answer any questions on this topic as well. Thank you.

Thank you. And then I'm sorry I skipped over it looks like Alliance for Automotive Innovation also indicated they might be on Zoom. Are they present? Not present. Okay. Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? If not, members questions? I guess for Redwood Materials, since we have you here. For--

Well, I guess I'm curious about the Maui fires. Of course those batteries were already maybe kind of d. The fire risk was already removed from for shipping them. But for EV batteries that we're looking at recycling, is there a facility? There's not a facility in state to kind of make them ready for shipping yet.

Is there? Is that something that we have--

That's a great- That's a great question. You know, the term recycler is pretty amorphous in this space, but I'd say the positive thing here for this topic is really overall the- the ecosystem of end of life management would ultimately and hopefully end up at a facility like Redwoods for final disposition.

However, there's a robust secondary market of automotive recyclers that are often dealing with end of life EVs, you know, once they're out of warranty with the OEM. So there's been a big policy dialogue on responsibility through that cadence. So we can certainly support on that.

But in all likelihood and honesty, it's very unlikely that any one state would have the complete capacity soup to nuts to manage an EV battery, fully recycle that and extract the materials. And I think that's really important. Last piece. The work we do goes beyond just removing EV batteries. We actually fully recover the materials from those batteries.

Yeah, I guess--

Create new domestic products.

Yeah, I guess in my understanding there would- it would be unlikely they would be fully recycled in state, but we would have to do some work to ready them to be safe for shipping to then go be recycled somewhere else.

Absolutely. And I think it's a workable system. I know there's, there's obviously some distance challenges overall in terms of the location of your state, but it's- it's nothing new to us in the work we do and it certainly isn't new to other states as well that this has to work across state lines.

And I think there's a number of, you know, automotive recyclers, particularly RADIUS Recycling as well. I know it sounds like they testified in support. We could do some of that initial work to ready the batteries and then help safely transport them further to a

facility like a Redwood.

For that initial work to ready the batteries, like how industrial is it? How- What kind of site would be appropriate for that kind of facility?

Yeah, that's a great question. It's, I mean I'd say it's professional over industrial. I mean it's really.

We look at automotive and I'm not representing the automotive recyclers to be clear, but if we, if we look at licensed automotive recyclers in this space, they have facilities, they have the ability and they have the track record of breaking down end of life vehicles to their subcomponents.

So we actually, we partner with some of the largest automotive recyclers nationwide.

One example is LKQ so that we actually will have crate DOT formalized crates and shipping for batteries ready to go from their facilities so that we can safely transport them for final disposition or repurposing or whatever we should choose to do with that battery from an ecosystem standpoint. So there is a nice market dynamic in place.

I think it's worthy to explore more solutions via commission. I've actually personally participated in a number of these commissions in a few other states or we're actively working on EV battery management policy across six other states right now.

And do you guys do other kinds of lithium ion battery recycling or just EV batteries?

We do. We actually, we recycle all lithium ion batteries. So anything from, you know, a rechargeable toothbrush all the way up to an energy storage system. We actually, we work with the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative to decommission and safely recycle in early stationary storage system that was deployed under their remit.

So we do anything from consumer rechargeable devices, EVs, energy, stationary storage. We- We really are leading the work in this space.

Okay, well, thank you for showing up to testify. We haven't had the chance to ask questions and I'd like to maybe meet offline because I have some other things I'd be interested in discussing.

I'd love to. Appreciate the dialogue. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions Members? Okay, we will move on to House Bill 1022 relating to energy industry information reporting. So this is adding HYEMA and Office of Homeland Security to the list of agencies that can look at energy industry information statements.

First up to testify we have DBET in support, Department of Law Enforcement in support, HYEMA in support, and Hawaii State Energy Office. All right, so standing on testimony and support, that is everyone we have signed up to testify. Is there anyone else here to testify on this? If not, Members questions?

All right, seeing none, we will move on to House Bill 1017 relating to greenhouse gas sequestration. So this actually repeals the Greenhouse Gas Sequestration Task Force. First up to testify, we have DBET in support, not present. And then Office of Planning and Sustainable Development. Thank you. All right, that is everyone we have signed up to testify.

Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? If not, Members, questions? All right, seeing none, we will move on House Bill 787 relating to decarbonization.

So this establishes or this asks for the Commission, Climate Commission to do a feasibility study on implementing a by clean program for procuring certain kinds of building materials and first up, we have Climate Commission.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair. Leah Laramie with the Hawaii State Climate Change Mitigation Adaptation Commission. We stand on our written testimony and support, but we've also had an opportunity to talk with the State Procurement Office, who has also submitted testimony.

And so we definitely would like to defer to them if they would like to take on this study or work hand in hand with them on this. Mahalo.

Thank you. And then Office of Planning and Sustainable Development. Great, thank you. And State Procurement Office offering comments, Climate Protectors Hawaii and support and Coalition Earth in support. Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? If not, Members questions? Gonna have to try to think of questions. Just. Also, we have quorum. All right.

House Bill 751. Last Bill on the agenda relating to organic waste. So this establishes goals for composting. First up to testify, we have Department of Health. Thank you. And then we have County of Hawaii, Department of Environmental Management in opposition. County of Maui in opposition. And then Hawaii Farmers Union support.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair. Hunter Heaivilin here on behalf of Hawaii Farmers Union. We stand on our written testimony in strong support of this measure. We view it as a critical upstream change to provide a sustainable local resource for the adoption of regenerative and conservation agricultural practices by farmers across the state.

We recognize some of the comments by the counties and Department of Health and would be open to extending the deadline for implementation.

But also highlight, particularly in the County of Maui's concern, that there is already in statute, I believe it's HRS 342G, a requirement that we prioritize how we process waste and incineration is at the bottom of that list.

So we rebuke the claim that we need to be ensuring that we're providing sufficient resources for burning when we should be providing them for local farmers. Happy to answer any questions. Mahalo for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. And then Ted Bolan in support, Jacqueline Ambrose in support, and Keoni Shizuma in support. Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? If not, Members, questions? Rep. Perruso.

I guess, for the Department of Health, because the counties are not here. Right.

So I don't know if you've had a chance to look at the testimony provided by Hawaii County and Maui County, but when I look at the data dashboard for Hawaii Green Growth, and, you know, there are also other sources of data, it's clear to me that what we're doing in terms of diversion has kind of plateaued.

And we're really at the 20 to 30% mark, you know, depends on the county. But I was wondering if you could explain. And I'm assuming it has to do with Lahaina, but Maui was. In 2020, they were close to 70% in terms of their organic waste, their solid waste diversion.

And then it plummeted. No solid waste.

Yeah. Well, yeah. So as far as the diversion portion, I think that is related to the closure of the Ikio co-composting facility. That's located at Central Maui Landfill. So they had to close the co-composting operation because of operational things. They were expanding, I think, one of the cells.

So they had to do some rearranging in the footprint of the landfill. But it is in their plans to reestablish that. But I don't know what the time frame on that is.

And are you in contact or in coordination with the counties or in particular with Maui County on this issue or.

Yeah, it's addressed in their integrated solid waste management plan. So they addressed it, and Maui County just went through a revision for the plan, and they did address that specific facility.

Okay, I'll take a closer look at that. It was surprising to me. I hadn't anticipated that.

Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thanks. Members, any other questions? All right. If not, we will recess and we'll be back shortly for decision making.

All right, we are back. Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection for decision making on the 9am agenda. First up, we have House Bill 977. For this we're going to note in the Committee report the recommended appropriation is $50 million. We will make technical amendments for clarity, consistency and style and defect the date to July 1st, 3000.

Members, any discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair, please take the vote.

On House Bill 977. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll call]. Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. House Bill 1295, relating to clean energy. We will make technical amendments for clarity, consistency and style and defect the date. Members, any discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

On House Bill 1295. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. Noting the absence of Representative Ward. Are there any reservations or no votes? Seeing none. Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. Next we have House Bill 1051, relating to energy efficiency portfolio standards. We are making some technical amendments for clarity, consistency and style and defecting the date. Members, any discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

On House Bill 1051, Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. Noting the absence of Representative Gene Ward. Are there any reservations or no votes? Seeing none. Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. House Bill 1019, relating to long duration clean energy storage. For this we will blank out the appropriation amounts and note those amounts in the Committee report, technical amendments and defect the date. Members, any discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

On House Bill 1019. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. Noting the absence of Representative Ward. Are there any nos or reservations? Seeing none. Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. On House Bill 344, we will accept the suggested amendment from DAGS to make HSEO the expending entity for the appropriation. We will adjust the date on page three, line eight, per DAGS' testimony so that it's not retroactive. We will also make the appropriation for one year, not two years. That was the original intention.

So we'll blank out that amount of 300,000 for one year, put that in the Committee report, defect the date and that is all. Members, any discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

On House Bill 344. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. Again, noting the absence of Representative Ward. Are there any reservations or no votes? Seeing none. Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

And House Bill 733, relating to electric vehicle parking. On this we're just going to defect the date to July 1st, 3000 and move it forward. Members, any discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

On House Bill 733. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Noting the absence of Representative Ward. Are there any reservations or no votes? Seeing none. Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. And on House Bill 242, relating to electric vehicle batteries, we're going to take the recommendation of Hawaii State Energy Office to add a member to the working group from the battery storage industry and to add potential stationary energy storage systems as a factor that the working group will consider.

We will also take Redwood Materials' amendments to add to the working group membership someone with specific experience in recycling EV batteries. We will extend the reporting date for this to 2027 and defect the date to July 1st, 3000. Members, any discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

On House Bill 242. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. Noting the absence of Representative Ward. Are there any reservations or no votes? Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

House Bill 1022, relating to energy industry information. Reporting on this, we're just going to defect the date and move it forward. Members, any discussion. Seeing none. Vice Chair.

On House Bill 1022. Chair's recommendation is passed with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. Representative Ward is excused. Are there any reservations or no votes? Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. House Bill 1017, relating to the Greenhouse Gas Sequestration Task Force. We're just going to defect the date and move this forward. Members, any discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

On House Bill 1017. Chair's recommendation is passed with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. Noting the absence of Representative Ward. Are there any reservations or no votes? Seeing none. Your recommendation has been adopted.

And on House Bill 787, relating to decarbonization, we're going to defect the day to move this forward and just request that the Climate Commission and Procurement Office work together to come back to us with the more specific suggested amendments should the bill continue moving forward. Members, any discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

On House Bill 787. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. Noting the absence of Representative Ward. Are there any reservations or no votes? Seeing none. Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. And on House Bill 751, my Vice Chair and introducer of the bill is going to say what the recommendation is.

Okay. So on this measure, you know, a great deal of insight was provided by the Department of Health and the counties of Hawaii and Maui. And on the basis of that feedback, we're going to go ahead and offer the following recommendations for amendments.

In Section 2, page 2, line 1, we're going to change any certified facility to any DoH permitted facility, excluding landfills and incinerators.

In Section 2, on page 2, line 3, we're going to change the tier 1 timeline to 2027 to allow for planning in Section 2, and that is because most of the counties are already close to this particular objective.

In Section 2, page 2, line 3, we're going to change 2026 to 2027 and on line 17, change 2035 to 2040. In Section 3, we'll be amending by moving these definitions of biodegradable and organic waste from HRS 342G-1 to HRS 342G-3. And after the definition of biodegradable, we'll be adding the definition of compostable to read as follows.

"Compostable is composed of an organic product that can disintegrate it into non toxic natural elements at a rate consistent with similar organic materials and requires microorganisms, humidity and heat to yield the finished compost product, CO2, water and biomass."

And at this point we want to clarify in the Committee report for this section, the benchmarks are mandates for waste generators, not overall reduction targets. In Section 3, page 3, line 9, we're going to change food soil paper that is acceptable for food storage to compostable food packaging.

In Section 4, page 3, we're going to change 2026 to 2027. And on line 19, change 2030 to 2035. In Section 4, page 3, lines 20 to 21, we're going to remove organic waste landfill diversion because it's duplicative language. In Section 4, page 4, line 3, we're going to change "reduce" to "eliminate."

We're going to delete lines 10, 11 and 12 and change line 8 through 9 to read "organic waste stream disposal via incineration waste to energy or landfill by 2040."

In Section 4, page 4, lines 15 to 16, we're going to remove again that duplicative language of organic waste diversion, noting in the Committee report that compliance tracking can be simplified by requiring haulers and processing facilities to report diversion rates rather than mandating each generator to report tonnages.

And we're also going to allow food donation and use of organic waste for animal feed to count towards compliance. Those are my recommendations.

Okay. Just a few simple recommendations. Okay, that's my recommendation. Members, any discussion? Seeing-- Oh, Rep. Quinlan? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. Noting the absence of Representative Ward. Are there any reservations or no votes? Seeing none. Chair, your recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. And we'll adjourn this notice and we're going to come right back for the 901. So we are back for decision making. It's Thursday, February 6th, room 325. And we are considering House Bill 974 relating to energy.

So for this we are going to defer decision making just to the next hearing date to Tuesday, February 11th at 10:20 or the end of the 10:15 agenda that day. We just need a little more time. So with that, we'll adjourn this hearing.

All right, welcome to our very robust audience. We are here. It is Thursday, February 6, 10am. We have a hearing of the joint committees on Energy and Environmental Protection and Agriculture and Food Systems.

There is one measure on the agenda, House Bill 1365 relating to Department of Agriculture and this is appropriating funds to DOA for preparing an EIS for wells at Panaea farm lots. First up to testify, Hawaii Department of Agriculture not present. Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Thank you. Chairs, Vice chairs, Members of the Committee, Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of. Oh, I'm sorry, yeah, it is a joint. Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. We have our written testimony in support. Appreciate you hearing the Bill.

We do ask for a simple amendment to address some of the concerns from previous years to call this a pilot program so that it doesn't apply to all state lands or all at least Department of Ag or DLNR lease lands.

We want to limit it to the Pont Elva Ag park and Pon Elva Farm lots which are both, if I understand correctly, managed by DOA and DLNR. So again we heard the concerns from previous years and so we'd like to be a pilot program just for that specific reason. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. And then we also have testimony in support from Hawaii Farmers Bureau, Purple Maya Foundation, Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery Association and three individuals. Is there anyone else here to testify on this measure? Members, questions? I guess the Hawaii Farm Bureau. There's no appropriation amount in this Bill. It's blank.

Do you know what it should be or. We can find out later.

Thank you. Chair Brian Miyamoto, on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. We are working with a contractor right now to, I guess, to find out if it's one EIS or multiple EIS's. So we are working with a contractor. We're hoping at this time to have some. Some dollars for you.

We'll get the dollars to the Committee as soon as we can get it, but we are pursuing that route to see what that cost would be. Obviously, if the Legislature is going to approve some funding, you want to know how much it's going to be.

All right. Any other questions? I think we can go straight into decision making if you're good with that. Yes. Thank you. House Bill 1365. The Committee for EEP recommends adopting Hawaii Farm Bureau suggested amendment to call this a pilot program.

The appropriation amount is already blank, so we will defect the date and move this forward. Members, any questions? Seeing none. Vice Chair.

House Bill 1365, Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call] Chair. Your recommendation has been adopted.

And for the Committee on Agriculture and Food Systems, eame recommendation as EEP. Any questions or concerns, members? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote.

Thank you, Chair. Voting on HB 1365, Chair's recommendation is passed with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair vote aye. Noting Representative Ward's excuse absence. [Roll Call]

Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thanks. And we're adjourned.

Thank you.