House Kills Geothermal Bill Favored By Hawaii Senate (Honolulu Civil Beat)
In a case of Hawaii House-Senate brinksmanship that went right down to the wire Friday evening, a controversial bill easing geothermal permitting was killed.
House Bill 252 was pushed by Sen. Malama Solomon, who argues that geothermal energy is the future of Hawaii in terms of bringing down energy costs.
The problem was that the bill was a so-called Frankenstein measure, containing the language of two separate measures. The bill originally dealt only with the Native Hawaiian roll commission.
Angry with the Senate's insertion of the geothermal language into HB 252, House conferees led by Rep. Chris Lee deferred the measure indefinitely, meaning the measure is almost certainly not coming back this session.
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