STAND. COM. REP. 181

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 744

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 744 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FUEL,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to protect our drinking water from methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) by:

(1) Prohibiting MTBE from being intentionally added to any gasoline, motor fuel, or clean fuel produced for sale or use in Hawaii after December 31, 2003;

(2) Prohibiting MTBE from being knowingly mixed in gasoline above 0.6 percent by volume; and

(3) Imposing a fine for such violations.

The Department of Health testified in support of this bill. The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism supported the intent of this bill. Aloha Petroleum, Ltd. opposed this bill.

 

Your Committee values the State's drinking water and does not want MTBE in our State. However, your Committee also feels that there should be some flexibility in the standard that allows for trace amounts that may be inadvertently mixed with the fuel sold here. Your Committee believes that changing the limit to the 0.05 percent should address the concerns of shippers.

Your Committee has learned that a shipping tanker carries 16,000,000 gallons of fuel and that the average residual amount of MTBE found after a shipment is only 800 gallons. The 0.05 percent limit amounts to approximately 8,000 gallons. Therefore, the trace amount limit of 0.05 percent takes into account any residual amount of MTBE that may be found in a shipping tanker.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Removing the language that in no event shall MTBE

be knowingly mixed in gasoline above 0.6 percent by volume;

(2) Providing that MTBE shall not exceed trace amounts of 0.05 percent by volume; and

(3) Defining trace amounts; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of style and clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 744, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 744, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

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

 

____________________________

HERMINA M. MORITA, Chair