SB 1201 Hawaii Senate · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO WILDFIRES.

SB 1201 establishes a Wildfire Recovery Fund to assist communities affected by wildfires and allows electric utilities to issue bonds (securitization) to cover wildfire-related costs. The bill directly affects electric utilities, which could use bond proceeds to pay for wildfire cleanup and recovery, potentially impacting ratepayers through future utility fees. Key provisions include creating the fund and enabling a specific financing mechanism for utilities, with the law taking effect on July 1, 2050. This is a policy change focused on funding mechanisms for wildfire recovery, not on prevention or new regulations.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

Senate Passage

Feb 2025

House Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action Dec 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

SB1201 → SB1201_SD1 · 6 edits

MODERATE

This bill establishes a Wildfire Recovery Fund to compensate property owners and businesses for damages caused by wildfires allegedly triggered by regulated utilities. It creates a streamlined administrative claims process to provide faster, lower-cost compensation than traditional litigation while protecting utility financial stability through liability caps. The bill also authorizes utilities to issue bonds to recover these costs and adds specific exemptions for the Wildfire Recovery Fund director from standard civil service rules.

Scope change

The bill expands the scope to include electric cooperatives with fewer than 50,000 members as eligible contributors under specific conditions, whereas the original draft focused primarily on investor-owned utilities.

DEFINITION

Added a new definition for 'Electric cooperative' to clarify which smaller rural electric utilities must meet specific thresholds to participate in the fund.

FISCAL

Removed specific dollar amounts for initial contributions from investor-owned utilities, replacing them with blank lines to be filled in by the legislature or commission.

REQUIREMENT

Added a requirement that utility executive officers cannot receive compensation increases unless the utility has maintained an approved wildfire mitigation plan for five consecutive years.

ENFORCEMENT

Added a new exemption in the civil service code specifically for the Executive Director of the Wildfire Recovery Fund, allowing the Governor to appoint and remove them without standard civil service protections.

TIMELINE

Changed the effective date of the Act from July 1, 2025, to July 1, 2050, significantly delaying when the fund and rules become operational.

TECHNICAL

Corrected several definition swaps in Chapter A, such as moving 'Qualified claimant' and 'Qualifying action' to their proper locations and adding a definition for 'Wildfire mitigation plan compliance report'.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 14, 2025

Upper · Passed

Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM.

upper

Feb 14, 2025

Committee

Reported from CPN/EIG (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 640) with recommendation of passage on Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referral to WAM.

upper

Feb 11, 2025

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on EIG recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in EIG were as follows: 5 Aye(s): Senator(s) Wakai, Chang, DeCoite, Richards, Fevella; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 0 Excused: none.

upper

Feb 11, 2025

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on CPN recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in CPN were as follows: 4 Aye(s): Senator(s) Keohokalole, Fukunaga, Richards, Awa; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 1 Excused: Senator(s) McKelvey.

upper

Feb 6, 2025

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on CPN/EIG has scheduled a public hearing on 02-11-25 9:30AM; Conference Room 229 & Videoconference.

upper

Jan 27, 2025

Committee

Referred to CPN/EIG, WAM.

upper

Jan 17, 2025

Introduced

Introduced.

upper

2 primary · 0 co-sponsors