It’s coming down to the wire for the undersea cable bill which would create a regulatory structure for financing undersea cables capable of transmitting renewable energy between islands. 

The House of Representatives has yet to assign conferees to Senate Bill 2785, a key piece of Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s legislative package this year.  

The bill must pass out of conference committee by the end of the week. 

Sen. Mike Gabbard’s office said that they had “no further information to share about the bill at this time.” Gabbard is chair of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee and chair of the conference committee on the Senate side.

Does this mean that the bill is in trouble? It never made it out of conference committee last year. Or might House leadership be using the cable bill to pressure the Senate to trade on legislation that it wants? 

Rep. Cynthia Thielen, who opposes the measure, told Civil Beat that she didn’t think the bill was necessarily in trouble.

“I think the governor and leadership wants this,” she said. “I would stay tuned, it’s going to pop up eventually.”