{"id":13812,"date":"2021-09-04T17:26:13","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T17:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=13812"},"modified":"2021-09-04T17:26:55","modified_gmt":"2021-09-04T17:26:55","slug":"what-weighs-on-legislators-minds-is-frequently-revealed-in-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=13812","title":{"rendered":"What Weighs on Legislators\u2019 Minds Is Frequently Revealed in Resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Legislative resolutions don\u2019t carry the weight of law, but they do provide clues as to what statutory changes might be given serious consideration in years to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, the resolution that received the most publicity was probably Senate Concurrent Resolution 44, Senate draft 1, House draft 1, \u201cDeclaring a climate emergency and requesting statewide collaboration toward an immediate just transition and emergency mobilization effort to restore a safe climate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the resolution states, a \u201cclimate emergency\u201d isn\u2019t the same as a state of emergency declared by appropriate authorities. Still, there is value in the Legislature\u2019s acknowledgement \u201cthat an existential climate emergency threatens humanity and the natural world\u201d and its request that \u201centities statewide \u2026 pursue \u2026  climate mitigation and adaptation efforts and mobilize at the necessary scale and speed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other resolutions lacked the sweep of this one, but nonetheless merit attention. Here\u2019s our take on a few of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sea Level Rise: <\/strong>Senate Resolution 127, Senate draft 1, calls on the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development to identify state facilities and infrastructure vulnerable to flooding and other effects of sea level rise. In addition, it is to assess what can be done to mitigate the likely impacts, \u201cincluding flood-proofing and relocating the facilities and infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In doing so, the office should give priority to \u201cnature-based disaster resilience, climate change adaptation solutions, and actions that enhance disaster resilience and climate change adaptation efforts,\u201d while also ensuring that the recommended actions \u201cprotect the state\u2019s most vulnerable populations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report to the Legislature is expected by the start of the 2023 session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coffee Pests:<\/strong> How did the coffee berry borer, a tiny beetle, become established in Hawai\u02bbi, threatening the state\u2019s second-most valuable export crop? Inquiring legislators want to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Concurrent Resolution 258\/Senate Resolution 217 notes that the borer was first detected in Hawai\u02bbi in 2010 in the coffee-growing districts of Kona and Ka\u02bbu. Since then, it has been detected on O\u02bbahu, Maui, Kaua\u02bbi, and Lana\u02bbi. In Kona, the resolution states, \u201cover 90\u00a0 percent of coffee farms in the \u2026 region are affected by the coffee berry borer,\u201d and every coffee farm in the region has seen yields \u2013 and crop prices \u2013 drastically reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislators are just as curious about how another coffee pest, the coffee leaf rust, was able to enter the state a decade later, spreading since then from Holualoa, in the heart of the Kona coffee region, to Maui and Lana\u02bbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coffee leaf rust.<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is imperative,\u201d the resolution says, \u201cthat this body [the Legislature] be provided with a clear understanding of how they [these two pests] were introduced so that the costs of mitigation can be fairly shared among the responsible parties.\u201d In an effort to arrive at that understanding, the resolution urges the state Department of Agriculture to pinpoint when and how the beetle and the rust were introduced \u201cand determine what role the importation of green coffee \u2026 played in the introduction of these pests, and what risks the continued importation of green coffee poses to the ongoing viability of Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s coffee industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phyllis Shimabukuro-Geiser, chairperson of the Board of Agriculture, said her department supported the intent of the resolution. However, she said, the DOA \u201clacks adequate staffing, training, and expertise for conducting the comprehensive investigations necessary to accurately determine the origin of these two invasive species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFurther, as this represents a likely foreign pathway, this falls within the expertise and broader jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.\u201d When the borer was first detected, the DOA asked the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service to help it track down the origins of the coffee bean borer in the state. \u201cWhile that investigation was inconclusive,\u201d she said in her written testimony, \u201cit was not linked to the importation of green coffee from foreign sources.\u201d Her department has asked APHIS for assistance with similar research as to the introduction of the coffee leaf rust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testimony in support came from a number of coffee farmers as well as the Hawai\u02bbi Coffee Association and the Kona Coffee Farmers Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to reporting on how the pests got here, the DOA is tasked with determining, among other things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n