`Aina Le`a Update: DW `Aina Le`a, LLC, which owns 1,072 acres of land near Waikoloa, on the Kohala coast of the Big Island, is suing the state of Hawai`i for $200 million as a result of actions by the Land … Continued
With a piddling fraction of a $146 million Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) fund being loaned out over two years, it is easy to understand legislators’ frustration with the program. But will a new measure that the Legislature is poised … Continued
The Hawai‘i Green Infrastructure Au- thority (HGIA) is required to deliver quarterly reports on its progress in distributing Green Energy Market Securitization loans and advancing the state’s goals of energy independence to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). If House Bill … Continued
House Bill 957 has been enthusiastically supported by the Department of Education (DOE), the teachers’ union, parents, contractors, and others too numerous to list here. It calls for allowing up to $46.4 million in Green Energy Market Securitization funds to … Continued
When the state’s Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) loan program was established in 2013, all parties involved believed that customers who took out loans for installation of photovoltaic and other energy saving technologies would have the option of paying off … Continued
Are minor actions permitted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR)— or any other state agency, for that matter — exempt from environmental review under the Hawai‘i Environmental Policy Act (HEPA)? A beach cleanup, a night of camping … Continued
The Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) seems willing to do almost anything to get its proposed pumped storage hydropower project along West Kaua‘i’s Koke‘e ditch system built. While not an original party to the water waste complaint and petition to … Continued
The state of Hawai‘i has won a major preliminary battle in its years-long effort to condemn a parcel of vacant land at Ma`alaea Harbor that it has leased, at sky-high rates, since 1994. At a hearing April 27, 2nd Circuit … Continued
Koke`e Cabin Squatter Case Highlights DLNR’s Property Management Defects What happens when the state Department of Land and Natural Resources doesn’t have sufficient staff to properly manage its properties and permits? In 2015, agents on loan from the department’s Land Division … Continued
May 2017