Bring Sunshine to Hawaii

There's sunshine everywhere in Hawaii except inside the halls of our state legislature.

It's time for a change!

Sign the petition to let the light in.

Bill text unavailable to the public: SB3186

Hawaii's gas cap law has been the subject of controversy, with the Senate tending to revise the current law and the House preferring to repeal it. The public should have been given every opportunity to review the proposed measures and to give their testimony to lawmakers.

Instead, text of the proposed House amendments were effectively withheld from the majority of the public, and a hearing was schedule to coincide with the Senate hearing (same date, same time) on the gas cap so that the public could not attend both at once.

The hearing notice refers to a proposed amendment available only in "Room 314":



This amendment is 61 pages long.

Because of the length of the amendment, sufficient time should be allowed for the public to read it. In fact, few members of the public could obtain a copy at all because of the necessity to drive to the Capitol, park, and pick one up. At the same time, it is very likely that members of the oil industry and other special interests had copies.

This action violates sunshine because the text of the measure heard by committee members was not available to the majority of the public but would presumably have been seen by oil industry representatives. This action violates process because the House should not have scheduled its hearing at the same time the Senate was hearing the same matter.

posted by Larry @ 10:37 PM