In her comments on the draft environmental assessment outlining options for the Po`ouli, Sheila Conant, professor of biology at the University of Hawai`i and a well-known expert on Hawaiian birds, favors the no-action alternative. “The only other alternative I would … Continued
The Peregrine Fund operates the only two captive-bird propagation facilities in the state of Hawai`i: one at Olinda, Maui, which until March 1996 had been operated by the state; the second on Bishop Estate’s Keauhou Ranch, near the Big Island … Continued
If the Po`ouli does not recover, it will become another statistic giving force to an increasingly accepted notion among biologists that the Earth is on the verge of a massive species meltdown. And, according to this notion, the oceanic islands, … Continued
When Pearl Harbor was selected as the USS Missouri’s home port in August 1996, the private Missouri Memorial Association began the final stages of its 14-year lobby to move the dreadnought from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. The … Continued
The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council has begun efforts to develop a fishery management plan for coral reef ecosystems in U.S. waters in the Pacific. A plan team, made up of scientists and natural resource managers from the National Marine … Continued
The Hawai`i Electric Light Company says it needs to expand its Keahole generating plant to meet the power requirements of the Big Island. It has announced plans to install two 20-megawatt combustion turbines, CT-4 and CT-5, by the end of … Continued
The heated disputes over who will be first to install the next large power-generating unit on the Big Island involves several players. Here’s a brief description of the major ones: HELCO: The Hawai`i Electric Light Co., Inc., is the Big … Continued
Four years after a controversial Land Board vote, the Hawai`i Electric Light Co. is still battling to keep alive a Conservation District Use Permit to expand its power plant at Ke`ahole, near the Kona airport on the western side of … Continued
Last summer, the Consumer Advocate was invited to comment on a proposal HELCO made to the Public Utilities Commission, asking the PUC for approval of an agreement it had reached with Enserch Development Corp., an independent power producer. As described … Continued