Bill Text: HI HB154 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Two-year Industrial Hemp Remediation and Biofuel Crop Pilot Program; Appropriation ($)

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-1)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2013-03-21 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM. [HB154 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-HB154-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 972

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 154

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environment, to which was referred H.B. No. 154, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INDUSTRIAL HEMP,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for and authorize the Chairperson of the Board of Agriculture to establish a two-year industrial hemp remediation and biofuel crop pilot program.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Farmers Union United, Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, and twenty-four individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Public Safety and two individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that agricultural operations in the past have left toxins in vast amounts of land in Hawaii.  Your Committees further find that hemp is a superior phytoremediator because it grows quickly and extracts toxins from the soil without the need to remove contaminated topsoil.  Industrial hemp is also an environmentally friendly and efficient feedstock for biofuel.  Your Committees conclude that a hemp remediation and biofuel crop pilot program will enhance the quality of agricultural lands and increase biodiesel fuel supplies.  The Department of Agriculture expressed concerns, however, regarding the necessary administrative requirements imposed by the State's Narcotics Enforcement Division and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration on Cannabis products, including hemp, and the fact that the Department of Agriculture does not have experience in obtaining a controlled substance registration or in growing hemp.  Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Authorizing the Director of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, rather than the Chairperson of the Board of Agriculture, to establish and direct the two-year industrial hemp remediation and biofuel crop pilot program;

 

     (2)  Changing the expending agency of the appropriation to the University of Hawaii; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 154, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 154, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environment,

 

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair		____________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair