SB2787, the Hawaii Electricity Reliability Act (HERA), would help us realize the full potential of renewable power on the grid by authorizing the PUC to develop, adopt, and enforce reliability standards and interconnection requirements.  It continues to move along and will be heard this Tuesday, April 3, at 6 PM in Conference Room 308. A separate entity within the PUC would oversee grid interconnection and reliability, and give oversight of the state’s grids.  This new agency would address issues such as the 15% of peak demand limit of distributed energy connected to the grid.  Help Hawaii get more renewables on the grid and show your support by writing testimony here.

Another bill looking to help Hawaii reach its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) goals and reduce our dependence on oil is SB2981.  It is being heard Tuesday, April 3, at 3pm in Conference Room 308.  This bill would develop a framework to replace oil-based power generation facilities and help the integration of renewable energy.  It would also make the PUC examine its avoided cost calculation methodology, ways to maximize the use of distributed generation including interconnection penetration levels, and options to modernize the electrical grid.  This bill has wide support from Blue Planet Foundation, the Hawaii Renewable Energy Alliance, and the PUC.  Please show your support by submitting testimony here.

Great news! HB2174 - transparency for campaign spending - has been scheduled for a hearing. Thank you for contacting the Senate JDL Committee and making it happen! The hearing is this Monday 4/2 at 10AM in State Capitol Room 016. Please submit your testimony in support!

HB2174 HD1 is a big step to improve transparency after Citizens United v. FEC and other court decisions. The bill would create a searchable database of Hawaii campaign data, improve reporting by PACs and SuperPACs, require reporting of late expenditures, and require disclosure of donors for campaign advertisements. This bill provides a critical update to Hawaii's campaign finance laws and helps voters find out who is spending big money to influence our elections.

Friends, we have reached the infamous hurdle for the throwaway bag bill, SB 2511. In order for the bill to keep moving (not die), it must be scheduled for a hearing with the Finance Committee very soon! Please call Chair Marcus Oshiro at (808) 586-6200 and ask him to schedule a hearing. This is the committee that stopped the house version HB 2260 in its tracks, and could do the same to the only remaining Bag Bill.

SB 2511 has overwhelming public support—from numerous retailers (such as Tamura's Market, Safeway, Times, and Down to Earth), environmentalists (Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, Kanu Hawaii), and businesses (such as Castle & Cooke Resorts, and the Pacific Resources Partnership) alike. This measure would place a ten cent fee on paper and plastic bags thereby encouraging people to bring reusable bags to the store and keeping harmful plastic bags out of the environment. One of the attractive aspects of this measure was the fact that it would have produced an estimated $12 million in funding for watershed protection, one of Governor Abercrombie's key initiatives. University of Hawaii climatologist, Tom Giambelluca, recently reported that Hawaii has seen a century-long trend of decreasing rainfall, with greater declines in the last 30 years. Recent scientific research has shown that healthy native rainforests help capture rainfall and direct the water into our aquifers, rather than simply washing off into our oceans.

Help us follow the money in Hawaii's campaigns! HB2174 -- the bill to ensure transparency for campaign spending -- needs a hearing in the Senate JDL Committee.

As we've written earlier, this bill is a big step to improve transparency after Citizens United v. FEC and other court decisions opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate money in campaigns. The bill would create a searchable database of Hawaii campaign data, improve reporting by noncandidate committees (PACs and SuperPACs), require disclosure of late expenditures, and bolster disclosure for campaign advertisements. This bill is our best chance this year to make significant improvements in disclosure in Hawaii's campaigns. We the voters deserve to know who is spending big money to influence our elections.

This bill successfully made it through the House (thanks to you!) and now it's in the Senate Judiciary & Labor Committee. It needs a hearing ASAP to move forward! Please contact Senate JDL Chair Clayton Hee and ask him to schedule a hearing for HB2174.