Report Title:

Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority; Appropriation

Description:

Appropriates, using GO bonds, $800,000 for planning, design, and construction for a main seawater pump.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

3081

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE NATURAL ENERGY LABORATORY OF HAWAII AUTHORITY.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) located at Keahole Point in Kailua-Kona operates an innovative ocean science and technology park. Strategically located at one of the steepest bathymetric offshore slopes in the Hawaiian Islands, NELHA provides support facilities for research on ocean thermal energy conversion, education, commercial projects, and related technologies. It operates a dual-temperature seawater system that is the only one of its kind in the world, setting NELHA apart from all other technology parks. An ideal setting for innovation and new industry development, NELHA has contributed significantly towards the State's economy. It hosts over thirty-two marine science research and education-related companies on eight hundred seventy acres, generating about $30,000,000 to $40,000,000 per year in total economic impact. NELHA's contributions include job creation, tax revenues, construction activity, high value product exports, and purchases of goods and services locally. Its promising industries showing tremendous growth potential include abalone farming, algae production, and deep seawater bottling. NELHA has also attracted interest and investment from countries in the Pacific basin. A key component of NELHA's operations is the continued capability and efficiency of its main seawater pump, which is used to pump cold, nutrient-rich water from the ocean's depths twenty-four hours a day. The pumps are aged and degraded, and need to be repaired and upgraded. This capital improvement project is vital to NELHA's objective of attaining self-sufficiency.

The purpose of this Act is to provide funding for the repair and upgrade of NELHA's main seawater pump.

SECTION 2. The director of finance is authorized to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $800,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for fiscal year 2004-2005, for the purpose of planning, designing, and constructing NELHA's main seawater pump in the following amounts:

Planning and design $90,000

Construction $710,000

Total funding $800,000

SECTION 3. The appropriation made for the capital improvement project authorized by this Act shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal biennium for which the appropriation is made; provided that all moneys from the appropriation unencumbered as of June 30, 2006, shall lapse as of that date.

SECTION 4. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of business, economic development, and tourism for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2004.

INTRODUCED BY:

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