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Senate committee advances bill letting DHHL pursue geothermal exploration on Hawaiian homelands
Summary
The Senate Committee on Hawaiian Affairs voted to pass Senate Bill 151 with amendments, authorizing the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) to study and pursue geothermal exploration on Hawaiian homelands while adding procedural safeguards and narrowing appropriation language.
The Senate Committee on Hawaiian Affairs voted to pass Senate Bill 151 with amendments that direct the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) to study and evaluate geothermal exploration on Hawaiian homelands and to form a permitted interaction group to advise the effort.
The bill, as amended, affirms DHHL’s authority to pursue geothermal resource testing on Hawaiian homelands and removes open-ended appropriation language that would have let the agency spend "as much as needed." Committee leaders also inserted a defective date of July 31, 2050, and added provisions requiring a permitted interaction group to study geothermal exploration, feasibility, extraction and use on DHHL lands.
DHHL staff and renewable-energy advocates told the committee that the measure is intended to give DHHL the tools to evaluate geothermal resources while protecting…
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