Half a loaf?
In a joint committee hearing on House Bill 2421–the barrel tax bill–Monday afternoon, Hawaii senators seemed poised to pass the measure. The bill has won wide support from mainstream environmental organizations for its $5 per barrel levy on oil, which would likely generate $150 million in revenue annually. Supporters like Jeff Mikulina of Blue Planet Foundation and Robert Harris at the Sierra Club have held, and reiterated Monday, that while the bill’s impact on consumers would be minimal, the tax would nevertheless encourage conservation and thus reduce consumption of gasoline (a contention some energy analysts dispute).
During his testimony, Mikulina presented senators with new polling results that he said showed wide support in the Islands for an overall increase in energy and fuel prices of around $9 per month, so long as consumers knew the money would go to reduce Hawaii’s dependence on fossil fuels. The current version of the bill would direct a majority of revenues to the state’s general fund while reserving some for climate change-related initiatives.
Not everyone in the environmental community was on board. Kat Brady of Life of the Land said that while the bill “has many positive things in it,” its failure to include a tax on biofuels and coal–two of the biggest culprits in global warming–left her in opposition.
“If you’re going to do something about climate change, why would you not include the two biggest contributors to greenhouse gases?” she asked.
Sen. Clayton Hee wondered why Brady was interested in “no loaf at all rather than half a loaf.”
Shannon Wood of the Windward Ahupuaa Alliance was content with half. “Coal needs to be included,” she told senators, “but I acknowledge the political reality and the need to get something done this year.”
The committee will make its decision today in a hearing scheduled for 2:45pm in Capitol room 229.
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