Report Title:

Petroleum Industry Reporting; Ethanol Content in Gasoline

Description:

Establishes new requirements for the blending of ethanol in gasoline.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2970

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO PETROLEUM PRODUCTS.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 486J-1 is amended as follows:

1. By adding three new definitions to be properly inserted and to read:

""Gasoline" includes conventional, oxygenated, and reformulated gasoline.

"Retail dealer" means a person who purchases liquid fuel from a licensed distributor and sells the liquid fuel at retail. Only sales of gasoline for consumption or used by the purchaser, and not for resale, are sales at retail.

"Ten per cent ethanol by volume" means a blend of gasoline and ethanol that has an ethanol content, exclusive of denaturants and permitted contaminants, that is not less than nine and two-tenths per cent by volume and not more than ten per cent by volume of the blend, as determined by an appropriate United States Environmental Protection Agency or American Society of Testing Material standard method of analysis of alcohol and ether content in motor fuels."

2. By amending the definition of "distributor" to read:

""Distributor" means and includes:

(1) Every person who refines, manufactures, produces, or compounds fuel in the State, and sells it at wholesale or [at retail, or who utilizes it directly in the manufacture of products or for the generation of power;] to retail dealers;

(2) Every person who imports or causes to be imported into the State or exports or causes to be exported from the State, any fuel; [and]

(3) Every person who acquires fuel through exchanges with another distributor[.]; and

(4) Every person who acquires fuel from a licensed distributor as a wholesaler thereof."

SECTION 2. Section 486J-10, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§486J-10 Ethanol content requirement. (a) [The commissioner shall adopt rules in accordance with chapter 91 to require that gasoline sold in the State for use in motor vehicles contain ten per cent ethanol by volume. The amounts of gasoline sold in the State containing ten per cent ethanol shall be in accordance with rules as the commissioner may deem appropriate.] Beginning on January 1, 2006, eighty-five per cent of all gasoline sold by each distributor for use in motor vehicles in the State must contain ten per cent ethanol by volume. The [commissioner] director may authorize the sale of gasoline that does not meet these requirements as provided in subsection (d).

(b) Gasoline sold in the State, for use in motor vehicles, that is blended with an ethanol-based product, such as ethyl tertiary butyl ether, shall be considered to be in conformance with this section if the quantity of ethanol used in the manufacture of the ethanol-based product represents ten per cent, by volume, of the finished motor fuel.

(c) Ethanol used in the manufacture of ethanol-based gasoline additives, such as ethyl tertiary butyl ether, may be considered to contribute to the distributor's conformance with this section; provided that the total quantity of ethanol used by the distributor is an amount equal to or greater than the amount of ethanol required under this section.

(d) The [commissioner] director may authorize the sale of gasoline that does not meet the provisions of this section:

(1) To the extent that sufficient quantities of competitively-priced ethanol are not available to meet the minimum requirements of this section; or

(2) In the event of any other circumstances for which the [commissioner] director determines compliance with this section would cause undue hardship.

(e) Each distributor, at such reporting dates as the [commissioner] director may establish, shall file with the [commissioner,] director, on forms prescribed, prepared, and furnished by the [commissioner,] director, a certified statement showing:

(1) The price and amount of ethanol available;

(2) The amount of ethanol-blended fuel sold by the distributor;

(3) The amount of non-ethanol-blended gasoline sold by the distributor; and

(4) Any other information the [commissioner shall require] director determines from time to time as being required for the purposes of compliance with this section.

Individual retail dealers shall not be required to file the monthly report unless they also are: a distributor; or compound or blend ethanol into gasoline other than at the distributor's terminal loading rack.

(f) [Provisions with respect to confidentiality of information shall be the same as provided in section 486J-7.] Any confidential information pertinent to the responsibilities of the department specified in this section that is obtained by another state agency, including the department of taxation, the public utilities commission, the attorney general, and the consumer advocate, shall be available to the attorney general, the attorney general's authorized representative, and the department and shall be treated in a confidential manner.

(g) Any distributor or any other person violating the requirements of this section shall be subject to a fine of not less than $2 per gallon of nonconforming fuel, up to a maximum of $10,000 per infraction.

(h) The [commissioner,] director, in accordance with chapter 91, shall adopt rules for the administration and enforcement of this section.

(i) Any person who engages in a practice that does not comply with the requirements of this section or an exemption issued by the director shall be in violation of this section and shall be subject to enforcement action by the department.

(j) If any provision of this chapter is held invalid, the invalidity shall not affect the remainder of the chapter and the provisions of this chapter are severable.

(k) The director shall refer any violations of any provision of this chapter to the attorney general, who may exercise appropriate legal or equitable remedies available to the State."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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