The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i Authority has been transformed in the few years since its former executive director, Ron Baird, departed. At a meeting of the NELHA board last month, presentations by prospective tenants suggested the state-owned facility, now … Continued
In 1989, the state Land Use Commission approved a redistricting petition that shifted about 1,000 acres of Agricultural land in South Kohala, on the west side of the Big Island, into the Urban district. Signal Puako, the landowner, had planned … Continued
Olowalu Town Nixed: Last month, at the end of a 12-hour-long hearing, the Land Use Commission refused to accept a final environmental impact statement for a residential development of 1,500 units in West Maui first proposed more than 10 years … Continued
Gardens Gone? The iconic gardens at Honolulu International Airport international terminal may soon be no more than a memory. The three gardens and their ponds – landscaped in the styles of China, Japan, and Hawai`i – have long been … Continued
More than a year after the Hawai`i Supreme Court heard oral arguments, it has issued its decision in Patrickson v. Dole, a case that revolves around harm to Central American workers exposed to DBCP, or dibromochloropropane. That chemical was widely … Continued
Carol A. MacLennan. Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawai`i. University of Hawai`i Press, 2014. 392 pages. $39.00 (cloth). In 1939, Harper & Brothers Publishers released John W. Vandercook’s history of sugar in Hawai`i. King Cane, it was called, and … Continued
A year and two months after the Hawai`i Public Utilities Commission opened a docket to determine the future of net energy metering, or NEM, it has concluded the first phase in a two-step process. On its face, … Continued
Defending the decision to phase out new net-energy metering customers, the Public Utilities Commission noted that the NEM program “was simply not designed for … deployment at the scale experienced today.” When the current NEM program was authorized in 2001, … Continued
Pia Valley Approval: The state Forest Stewardship Advisory Committee (FSAC) has given its approval to the acquisition by the Department of Land and Natural Resources of a 300-acre parcel of forested land in East Honolulu. Pia Valley, which lies in … Continued
The annual Hawai`i Conservation Conference, held this year in August at the University of Hawai`i-Hilo, offered hundreds of discussions on a wide range of topics. This month, we continue to report on selected presentations. * * * When Looking … Continued