HB2523_HD1_ – Sets up PUC regulatory framework for a planned interisland electric cable. Senate accepted House version and it passed.  Passed.  See Maui News article for more – especially the reservations our Maui County Senators expressed about this bill and their attempts to rewrite it to include more community input.

Sen English was the only Maui County Senator to vote “Aye with Reservations”.  “
Explanation of what “Aye with Reservations” means:
Aye with Reservations” is a vote that is used when a legislator knows there are enough Ayes to pass a  measure but wants to stay a part of the committee that reconciles the Senate and House versions.  A “no” vote means that the Senator cannot be a part of the reconciliation process and thus loses all ability to influence the final bill, which can be substantially changed during reconciliation.  So strategy-wise a legislator will vote “no” when s/he knows there are enough “no” votes to kill a measure but will vote “aye with reservations” when s/he has no chance of killing the measure but wants to keep fighting.

SB755 – Exempting some government projects from the EIS, SMA etc process.  This bill died for lack of reconciliation between the Senate and House versions (an example of how the “aye with reservations” keeps legislators on the reconciliation committee to affect the final disposition of a bill when differing versions have been passed  by the House and Senate)

SB 2927 (SD1) Establishes planning districts and creates a process for developers to apply for residential and commercial exceptional planning projects (by bypassing normal planning requirements).  Died in conference.

SB 3010 Exempts DOT from environmental reviews in rebuilding 11 bridges.  Passed

HB 2398, amends and assigns land, such as Aloha Stadium Lands, to the highly controversial Public Lands Development Corporation law passed last year.  This was another bait and switch bill that passed through committees and then was gutted and replaced with a completely different bill.  Passed

HB 2703, proposed to food self-sufficiency standards for the state to achieve by 2020.  Despite widespread support, House Chair Clift Tsuji proposed a conference draft that inserted numerous “poison pills” into the bill, such as having the bill dismantle the state water code and requiring set amounts of development around the state. These unrelated introductions doomed an otherwise popular initiative.  Died.

SB 2787 requires the Public Utilities Commission to adopt reliability standards for renewable energy projects that want to connect to the grid. The bill is meant to address HECO/MECO’s propensity for denying new PV connections without showing why.  Passed.