Bill Text: HI SB586 | 2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Climate Change.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-17 - Passed First Reading. [SB586 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2025-SB586-Introduced.html
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
586 |
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THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO CLIMATE CHANGE.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that unabated greenhouse gas emissions, and resulting climate change and sea level rise, present an urgent and existential threat to citizens of the State. The State has committed to mitigating the impacts of climate change. Chapter 225P, Hawaii Revised Statutes, established a statewide target to become net carbon negative as quickly as practicable but no later than 2045. In addition, the mayors from each county have pledged to reduce the State's dependence on fossil fuels by eliminating fossil fuels from ground transportation by 2045. These efforts, however, must be accelerated.
The purpose of this Act is to advance the State's climate change mitigation commitment by requiring the State and counties to upgrade to zero emission buses by 2045.
SECTION 2. Section 51-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§51-1
Grant of powers. Every county
of this State may acquire, condemn, purchase, lease, construct, extend, own,
maintain, and operate mass transit systems, including[, without being] but
not limited to[,] motor buses, street railroads, fixed rail
facilities such as monorails or subways, whether surface, subsurface, or
elevated, taxis, and other forms of transportation for hire for passengers and
their personal baggage.
Every county shall have power to provide mass transportation service, whether directly, jointly, or under contract with private parties, without the county or private parties being subject to the jurisdiction and control of the public utilities commission in any manner.
[The
terms "mass transit" and "mass transportation" mean
transportation by bus, or rail or other conveyance, either publicly or
privately owned, which provides to the public general or special service (but
not including school buses or charter or sightseeing service) on a regular and
continuing basis.]
Beginning
January 1, 2045, any county operating mass transit services pursuant to this
chapter shall not use or employ any motor bus unless the motor bus is a zero
emissions bus.
For the purposes of this section:
"Mass
transit" or "mass transportation" mean transportation by bus, or
rail or other conveyance, either publicly or privately owned, which provides to
the public general or special service (but not including school buses or
charter or sightseeing service) on a regular and continuing basis.
"Pollutant"
means hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and lead.
"Zero
emission bus" means a motor bus that produces zero exhaust emissions of
any pollutant and includes battery-electric powered buses and hydrogen fuel
cell-electric powered buses, but does not include any vehicle, locomotive, or
car operated exclusively on a rail or rails.
This section shall not be applied so as to impair any contract existing as of the date of enactment of this section, or operative portion thereof, in a manner violative of either the Hawaii State Constitution or Article I, section 10, of the United States Constitution."
SECTION 3. Section 103D-211, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§103D-211 Procurement rules. (a) The procurement policy board shall adopt all rules necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter and to implement its provisions in accordance with chapter 91. The policy board shall not delegate its power to adopt rules.
(b) Regarding the procurement of motor vehicles
capable of transporting more than fifteen passengers, the procurement policy
board shall promptly adopt all rules necessary to transition to one hundred per
cent zero emission buses as quickly as possible, but no later than January 1,
2045.
As
used in this subsection:
"Pollutant"
means hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and lead.
"Zero
emission bus" means a motor vehicle capable of transporting more than fifteen
passengers that produces zero exhaust emissions of any pollutant and includes
battery- electric powered buses and hydrogen fuel cell-electric powered buses,
but does not include any vehicle, locomotive, or car operated exclusively on a
rail or rails.
[(b)]
(c) No rule shall change any
commitment, right, or obligation of the State or of a contractor under a
contract in existence on the effective date of such rule."
SECTION 4. Section 302A-407, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
"(a) Any school bus contract between the State and
the contractor shall include a provision requiring the contractor to equip the
contractor's vehicles with the signs and visual signals described in section
291C-95(d) and (g). The contract shall
also include other provisions as may be deemed necessary by the State for the
safety of school bus passengers and shall include provisions requiring
compliance with the rules and standards described in section 286-181. Beginning July 1, 2025, the State shall
not enter into any school bus contract for a term that extends past January 1, 2045,
unless the bus that is the subject of the contract is a zero emission bus. Beginning January 1, 2045, the State shall
not enter into any school bus contract unless the bus that is the subject of
the contract is a zero emission bus.
For
the purposes of this subsection:
"Pollutant"
means hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and lead.
"Zero emission bus" means a motor bus that produces zero exhaust emissions of any pollutant and includes battery- electric powered buses and hydrogen fuel cell-electric powered buses, but does not include any vehicle, locomotive, or car operated exclusively on a rail or rails."
SECTION 5. The public utilities commission shall amend the commission's administrative rules to encourage motor carriers to upgrade to zero emission buses by 2045.
SECTION 6. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun before its effective date.
SECTION 7. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 8. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Climate
Change; Mass Transit; Counties; Zero Emissions
Description:
Requires the state and counties to upgrade to zero emission buses by 2045.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
