March 2018 PDF
March 2018
Board Directs Land Division To Help Permittees, DHHL Meet Water Needs
In 2016, the Legislature passed a controversial bill that gave two dozen or so individuals and companies throughout the state with revocable permits to divert water a period of three years (and perhaps longer) to secure long-term leases from the … Continued
New & Noteworthy: Kahului Questions, Hu Honua, Corrections
Kahului Questions: A company that wants to use energy crops from 500 acres of Alexander & Baldwin land on Maui, produce biogas, and use the fuel to run a power plant that will provide electricity to Maui County’s Kahului wastewater … Continued
COMMENTARY From High Hopes to Sad Reality: GEMS’ Repeated Hits to Ratepayers
The Public Utilities Commission has ruled on the matter of who should pay the costs incurred by Hawaiian Electric utilities when they service loans made from the Green Energy Market Securitization fund, or GEMS. Hint: It’s not the utilities. Another … Continued
DOE Uses GEMS Loan to Install Air Conditioning: Is That Allowed?
The Hawai‘i Green Infrastructure Authority has recommended that the Legislature consider allowing at least part of the balance of Green Energy Market Securitization funds to be used as “a revolving credit facility for any state agency to access low-cost financing … Continued
Pacific Paradise Debacle, Lawsuit Draw Attention to Fishermen’s Plight
Late on the night of October 10, 2017, the Pacific Paradise, a Honolulu-ported longline fishing vessel, hit a reef just 1,000 feet off Waikiki beach in the middle of the night. Twenty people were aboard the 79-foot-long craft, which would … Continued
Aquatic Resource Managers Struggle To Fine-Tune Fishing License Scheme
The Department of Land and Natural Resources’ effort to generate enough revenue to properly staff its fisheries data collection efforts and commercial marine license (CML) program hit a couple of snags at the December meeting of the Board of Land … Continued
Land Board to Legislature: Please, Consider Shoreline Easement Bills
“We have to be aware. It think it’s quite likely, and probably in the lifetimes of our children, the removal of structures that are uninhabitable because of sea level rise is going to be a big government issue. The state … Continued
February 2018 PDF
February 2018
Water Commission Struggles to Address Failure to Enforce Minimum Stream Flows
It’s been more than a decade since the community group Hui o Na Wai Eha petitioned the state Commission on Water Resource Management to amend the interim instream flow standards (IIFS) of Waihe‘e and Wailuku rivers and Waikapu and Waiehu … Continued