The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) has issued its first “true-up” for the Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) bonds. The true-up, a required element of the program approved by the Public Utilities Commission, is a periodic accounting … Continued
Board Facilitates Removal of Encroachments, While Expanding an Easement for Another “The ocean is rising. The state is getting more land every year,” said board member Stanley Roehrig at the May 8 meeting of the state Board of Land and Natural … Continued
Moving Targets: Four years ago, the Hawai`i Clean Energy Initiative issued a “road map” identifying strategies for reducing the use of fossil fuels in the transportation sector. So how is that working out? Last month, the state released a draft … Continued
At a time when the bigeye tuna stock in the Western and Central Pacific is being overfished — and by some standards, is already in an overfished state — the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council last month asked the National … Continued
July 2015
This time around, not a single angry word came from Hawai`i’s commercial bottomfish fishers, even though their annual catch limit (ACL) over the next few years will be tens of thousands of pounds less than it’s been in recent … Continued
“This pathogen poses a serious threat to Hawai`i’s flagship native tree species whose loss would be catastrophic for the diversity, structure, and function of Hawai`i’s remaining native forests and the services they provide.” — “First Report of Ceratocystis wilt on … Continued
The rapid spread of the fungus killing `ohi`a on the Big Island is scary enough. The prospect that it could take down `ohi`a on other islands is a nightmare. How to stop it at the shores of Hawai`i island was … Continued
In mid-May, the Hawai`i Department of Agriculture’s Plant Pest Control Branch issued pest advisories on the hala scale, Thysanococcus pandani Stickney, and the bagrada bug, Bagrada hilaris Burmeister. The hala scale was first detected in Hawai`i on trees in Hana, … Continued
At a recent meeting of the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, veteran observers of the state Legislature summed up their take on the session that came to an end last month. “My optimism was shaken this session,” said Mark … Continued