July 2012 PDF
July 2012
Supreme Court Dissects Arguments in Appeal of Maui Stream Standards
Appellants in the Na Wai `Eha case have a laundry list of gripes about the Commission on Water Resource Management’s June 2010 vote setting interim instream flow standards (IIFS) for four West Maui streams. To start, the commission erroneously used … Continued
The Lessons that Atolls Can Teach
Pamela Frierson. The Last Atoll: Exploring Hawai`i’s Endangered Ecosystems. Trinity University Press, 2012. 285 pages + notes, bibliography, and index. $16.95 (paper). It took author Pamela Frierson more than a decade to work her way up the jewels in the … Continued
Supreme Court Weighs Jurisdiction in Appeal of Decision on Maui Water
On June 6, every seat in the ornate second-floor courtroom of Ali`iolani Hale was taken well before the 9 a.m. start of oral arguments before the justices of the Hawai`i Supreme Court. Stragglers were forced to stand. That day, parties … Continued
Legislative Audit of NELHA Highlights Sunshine Law Concerns, Lack of Transparency
The findings in legislative auditor Marion Higa’s report on the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i Authority (NELHA) should come as no surprise to anyone who has been keeping up with that agency through the pages of Environment Hawai`i. The report, … Continued
Manager Suggests Various Changes to Improve Feed-in-Tariff Program
The state’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) program is simply experiencing growing pains. That’s the opinion of Harry Judd, the independent observer (IO) appointed by the state Public Utilities Commission to oversee the FIT program, launched in 2010 to facilitate the interconnection of … Continued
Board Talk: Maui County Council Remains Skeptical of State Urbanization Plans for Pu`unene
The Maui County Council is standing in the way of the state’s efforts to develop the commercial potential of nearly 700 acres of state-owned land in Pu`unene. The Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Land Division has appealed to the … Continued
Biofuels Company Courts State Agribusiness Agency
Yet another renewable energy company has clamped its eyes on Kaua`i lands controlled by the state Agribusiness Development Corporation. Hawai`i Bioenergy, which seeks to develop, produce and sell biofuels in Hawai`i, announced to the ADC board in May that it … Continued