Despite Near Unanimous Support for the Measure, House Finance Committee Has Yet to Schedule a Hearing
Despite overwhelming public support — from numerous retailers, environmentalists, and businesses — the House Committee on Finance has yet to schedule a hearing on SB 2511, a measure that would place a ten cent fee on paper and plastic bags and fund Governor Abercrombie’s watershed initiative.
“Chair Marcus Oshiro is well aware of this measure and previously indicated he was inclined to hear it,” said Robert D. Harris, Director of the Sierra Club. “One could conclude that the failure to schedule the bill is an attempt by some members of the House to kill the bill without the necessity of a public hearing.”
Over 500 million throwaway bags are given away annually, with a significant number of these bags eventually littering Hawaii’s rivers, beaches, and communities. Under SB 2511, a ten cent offset fee would be imposed on most paper and plastic bags. A similar measure in Washington D.C. reduced consumption of throwaway bag by approximately 80%.
“This bill would work,” said Harris. “It would put the cost of throwaway bags upfront. The places that have imposed such fees have seen plastic bag litter disappear.”
This concept received more support then just about any other bill before the legislature this year. Retailers (such as Tamura’s Market, Safeway, Times, and Down to Earth), businesses (such as Castle & Cooke Resorts, and the Pacific Resources Partnership), community groups, and hundreds of individuals have consistently testified in support of the measure. Legislators have been bombarded by emails, phone calls, and displays in support of the measure.
“This measure received near unanimous support from the public,” said Joy Leilei Shih, a Sierra Club and Surfrider Foundation volunteer. “From girl scouts creating massive displays to elementary students testifying in front of committees, I’ve rarely seen the public so engaged in a legislative bill. Most people seem to just get the importance of this measure.”
Retailers, in particular, noted that this measure would help reduce costs. Currently they pay between 1 to 10 cents for each throwaway bag. With over 500 million bags used each year, this results in significant additional costs that are indirectly passed onto consumers. Reducing the amount of throwaway bags used would not only help the environment, it would help people save some green as well. Reducing store costs would eventually result in lower costs of groceries and household goods.
One of the attractive aspects of this measure was the fact that it would have produced an estimated $12 million in funding for watershed protection, one of Governor Abercrombie’s key initiatives. University of Hawaii climatologist, Tom Giambelluca, recently reported that Hawaii has seen a century-long trend of decreasing rainfall, with greater declines in the last 30 years. Recent scientific research has shown that healthy native rainforests help capture rainfall and direct the water into our aquifers, rather than simply washing off into our oceans.
“Every election year, politicians talk about how they support the environment,” lamented Harris. “This is the time to act – Hawaii residents deserve a cleaner, safer environment. And everyone wants the sources of pristine drinking water preserved for future generations.”
The Sierra Club is stunned that the House Finance Committee might fail to even hear one of the top environmental priorities of the year.
“Legislators are going to have a tough time explaining to their constituents why they spent time trying to eliminate measures that help protect clean water and clean air, and couldn’t find the time to even schedule a hearing on SB 2511,” said Robert Harris.