STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1296-08

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

 

RE:   S.B. No. 3103

      S.D. 1

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Water, Land, Ocean Resources & Hawaiian Affairs and Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 3103, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENDANGERED SPECIES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to increase landowner participation in safe harbor agreements and habitat conservation plans by authorizing the development and use of programmatic safe harbor agreements and programmatic habitat conservation plans that cover multiple landowners or a class of landowners and over a wide area or region.

 

     The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) and Hawaii Forest Industry Association testified in support of this bill.  Earthjustice, Sierra Club-Hawaii Chapter, and Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, opposed this measure.  The University of Hawaii Environmental Center provided comments.

 

     Your Committees believe that the success of endangered species restoration relies on carefully crafted tools that ensure compliance with the terms of safe harbor agreements and habitat conservation plans.  Accordingly, your Committees have amended this bill by requiring that the Endangered Species Committee review and the Board of Land and Natural Resources approve the certificates of inclusion for consistency with the terms and conditions of the programmatic agreement or plan prior to the issuance of the certificates to extend coverage of the incidental take license, rather than requiring DLNR's review and concurrence. 

 

     This bill has also been amended by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style, clarity, and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, Ocean Resources & Hawaiian Affairs and Energy & Environmental Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3103, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3103, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, Ocean Resources & Hawaiian Affairs and Energy & Environmental Protection,

 

 

____________________________

HERMINA MORITA, Chair

 

____________________________

KEN ITO, Chair