[§196D-2]  Findings and declaration of
purpose.  The legislature hereby finds and declares that:



(1)  The development of Hawaii's geothermal resources,
which are located principally on the island of Hawaii and possibly on the
island of Maui, represents a substantial and long-term source of indigenous
renewable alternate energy that could be used to generate electric energy to
meet the State's electric energy needs and concurrently help to reduce the
State's need for imported fossil fuels;



(2)  The State has deemed it appropriate that the
private sector should develop these geothermal resources, and, to that end, has
sought to encourage private sector exploration and development of geothermal
resources;



(3)  The private sector companies seeking to develop
geothermal resources are, however, unable or unwilling to expend the
substantial amounts of funds needed to develop these resources to their full
extent without an assured and sufficiently large market for the electric energy
to be generated therefrom, and the present and projected electric energy demand
on the island of Hawaii does not provide an assured and sufficiently large
market;



(4)  The greatest present and projected demand for
geothermally generated electric energy is located on the island of Oahu;



(5)  The State, with the support and assistance of the
federal and county of Hawaii governments, has been exploring for several years
the technical, engineering, economic, and financial feasibility of an
interisland deep water electrical transmission cable system that would be
capable of transmitting geothermally generated electric energy from the island
of Hawaii to the islands of Maui and Oahu, and believes that a cable system may
be feasible and desirable;



(6)  The development of such a cable system will not
be undertaken without the firm assurance that a sufficient amount of
geothermally generated electric energy will be continuously available to be
transmitted through a cable system once it becomes operational;



(7)  The fundamental interrelationship between the
development of geothermal resources and a cable system and the magnitude of the
cost to undertake each of these developments clearly indicate that neither will
be undertaken without the firm assurance that the other also will be undertaken
in a synchronized and coordinated manner to enable both developments in
substance to be completed concurrently, thereby ensuring that revenues will be
available to begin amortizing the costs of each of these developments;



(8)  A major and fundamental difficulty in the
development of both geothermal resources and a cable system is the diverse
array of federal, state, and county land use, planning, environmental, and
other related laws and regulations that currently control the undertaking of
all commercial projects in the State;



(9)  These controls attempt to ensure that commercial
development projects in general are undertaken in a manner consistent with land
use, planning, environmental, and other public policies, except that some of
these specific laws, regulations, and controls may be repetitive, duplicative,
and uncoordinated;



(10)  To a limited extent, the State and counties have
sought to ameliorate this difficulty through the enactment or adoption of
measures to improve the coordination and efficiency of land use and planning
controls and specifically to facilitate the development of geothermal
resources;



(11)  Notwithstanding these efforts, the complexities,
the magnitude in scope and cost, the fundamental interrelationship between the
development of geothermal resources and a cable system, the inherent
requirement for the coordinated development of the geothermal resources and a
cable system, the substantial length of time required to undertake and complete
both developments, and the desirability of private funding for both
developments require that affected state and county agencies be directed to
pursue and develop to the maximum extent under existing law the coordination
and consolidation of regulations and controls pertinent to the development of
geothermal resources and a cable system;



(12)  The development of geothermal resources and a
cable system, both individually and collectively, would represent the largest
and most complex development ever undertaken in the State;



(13)  Because of the complexities of both projects,
there is a need to develop a consolidated permit application and review process
to provide for and facilitate the firm assurances that companies will require
before committing the substantial amounts of funds, time, and effort necessary
to undertake these developments, while at the same time ensuring the
fulfillment of fundamental state and county land use and planning policies;



(14)  The development of geothermal resources and a
cable system are in furtherance of the State's policies, as expressed in the
state plan and elsewhere, to develop the State's indigenous renewable alternate
energy resources and to decrease the State's dependency on imported fossil
fuels; and



(15)  A consolidated permit application and review
process for the development of the State's geothermal resources and the cable
system should be established by an act of the legislature. [L 1988, c 301, pt
of §1]