Hawai'i could become the first state in the country to require that all new single-family homes come equipped with energy-saving solar water heaters.

Lawmakers last week approved the mandate, which advocates say would save new homeowners hundreds of dollars a year in electricity costs and help reduce Hawai'i's use of fossil fuels.

It's among several environmental bills the Legislature sent to Gov. Linda Lingle last week, ranging from establishing an electronic waste recycling program and ensuring homeowners' rights to use clotheslines to generating more money to fight invasive species and offering tax credits for protecting conservation lands.

Some environmentalists are not completely happy, however. Other environmental bills, including measures to ban plastic foam containers and phase out incandescent light bulbs, failed. Some are also concerned about the passage of a controversial bill to create incentives to preserve important agricultural land.

"On energy issues, the Legislature did very well," said Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter director Jeff Mikulina. "On land-use issues, they did very poorly. It was a disaster."

House and Senate leaders say the Legislature made huge strides for the environment this year.

"We have comprehensive legislation that is interwoven with ... preserving ag lands and open space, preserving the environment, encouraging (energy) conservation," said House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell. "And all of it put together, I think, is moving us forward in terms of achieving the goals that we had previously set. We're actually going to be doing something now. It's not just talking about it."

SENATE BILL 644

The solar water heaters measure — Senate Bill 644 — is perhaps one of the more significant pieces of environmental legislation this session. It comes at a time when the price of oil has soared to well above $100 a barrel, hiking residents' energy costs.

"Passing the solar roofs bill was the single biggest step the Legislature took this year to increase Hawai'i's energy security," said Mikulina, who said Hawai'i would be the first state in the nation with such a law.

The bill would require home builders to include solar water heaters in new single-family dwellings beginning in 2010. Variances would be allowed if an engineer or architect finds that solar would be impractical because of insufficient sunshine, would cost more than would be saved by lower utility bills, or if an alternative renewable energy system is used.

Under the bill, the existing solar energy tax credit would be available for homes built before 2010.

Advocates say such law is expected to cut electricity costs for an average new home by 30 percent to 35 percent. That would mean 5,000 new homes would collectively save about $3 million a year and cut thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, said Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser, who introduced the bill and credited Rep. Hermina Morita, D-14th (Hanalei, Anahola, Kapa'a), and Sen. Ron Menor, D-17th (Mililani, Waipi'o), for ushering its passage.

Hooser, D-7th (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau), said the Legislature accomplished much for the environment this year.

He also voted against an agricultural lands bill that would, among other things, provide tax credits for agricultural costs and create a loan guarantee program for projects on land designated important agricultural land.

The bill, Senate Bill 2646, would also allow landowners to seek the designation of agricultural land as "important" in combination with the reclassification of a smaller, proportionate area as rural, urban or conservation.

Lawmakers who support the bill said the incentives will preserve more agricultural land, but critics like the Sierra Club said it will create an opening for more development with little public input.

ADDITIONAL BILLS

That was among a few bills also opposed by Henry Curtis, executive director of environmental group Life of the Land. He also criticized measures that would make biofuel material producers eligible for direct leases of public lands and expedite the permitting for large renewable energy facilities, saying they don't provide enough opportunity for public input.

"The legislators have given away a lot and gotten very little," Curtis said.

But it was a very good session when it came to some of The Nature Conservancy's priorities, said conservancy external affairs director Mark Fox.

"All in all, the stuff that (The Nature Conservancy) works on — native species, native habitat, invasive species prevention and control — all of those, even in a tight budget year, got treated really well by the Legislature," Fox said, adding that lawmakers allocated funding for full-time staffing of the so-called Super Sucker, an underwater vacuum that removes invasive algae in Kane'ohe Bay.

Lawmakers passed bills to provide a tax credit to encourage landowners to dedicate land for conservation, increase the maximum fine for violations within the conservation district from $2,000 to $15,000 per violation, and establish an electronic waste recycling program.

Lawmakers also made changes to the inspection fee for incoming cargo, which is estimated to increase funds for the state agriculture department's biosecurity program from about $550,000 to $6 million annually.

Other environmental bills that passed include a measure to allow the use of clotheslines on single-family homes and townhouses and a bill to authorize the public utilities commission to create a ratepayer-funded photovoltaic rebate program.

But bills that ultimately failed include legislation to phase-out incandescent light bulbs and establish a compact fluorescent bulb recycling program, require big-box retailers to operate redemption centers for HI-5¢ beverage containers, and require shoreline development setbacks that anticipate sea level rise.