Civil Beat
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August 2010 | July 2010 | June 2010 | May 2010 | April 2010
The Best
Hawaii Bar Association’s Secrecy Under Fire
Instead of focusing on nominee Katherine Leonard, the Judiciary Committee spent much of Tuesday’s hearing questioning how 20 lawyers decided she was unqualified and why they won’t explain their thinking.
August 2010
Fact Check — Mufi: Neil’s Congressional Performance “Dead Last”
Governor hopeful Mufi Hannemann smacked rival Neil Abercrombie in a radio spot, saying the former U.S. representative’s performance in Congress was at the bottom of those who had served as long. But is that true?
Fact Check — Djou: We Have An Early Lead!
A survey conducted by a Republican pollster for the national GOP and Congressman Charles Djou shows he has an early edge over Democrat Colleen Hanabusa. But can the source be trusted?
Runway Under Water? Honolulu Planners Seek Study of Climate Change Impacts on Transportation
Local officials last week rushed to apply for a grant for hundreds of thousands of federal dollars. The money would be used to identify major transportation assets that could be affected by climate change.
How Green Is GOP Underdog John Carroll? Big Island Home a “Disaster” for Alternative Energy
Asked about his personal sustainability choices, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Carroll — a former commercial cucumber and zucchini farmer who grows and eats his own Big Island beef — said his clean energy projects have fallen flat.
Hawaii Bar Association’s Secrecy Under Fire
Instead of focusing on nominee Katherine Leonard, the Judiciary Committee spent much of Tuesday’s hearing questioning how 20 lawyers decided she was unqualified and why they won’t explain their thinking.
July 2010
In Portland, a Fine Line Between City and Country
A short trip to the Pacific Northwest shows that some of the land use issues facing Hawaii are common in mainland locales. Oregon’s biggest city has established an urban growth boundary that limits development to downtown. But it comes with a cost.
Aiona on His Garage Clothesline and VW Van
The GOP candidate for governor talks about the steps his family has taken to live green, in response to Civil Beat questions about how politicians’ personal practices jibe with their policy positions.
Fact Check — Djou: Raising $3.8 Trillion In New Taxes a Bad Idea
As a guest on Fox Business News Monday evening, Hawaii’s Republican 1st Congressional District representative told host Neil Cavuto that “raising $3.8 trillion in new taxes” from the expiration of Bush tax cuts is a bad idea. Is the number supportable?
Superferry Plan Raises Environmental Questions
How Green Is Aiona? We’ll Find Out Next Week
How Green Is Hannemann? He Won’t Show Or Tell
Yes, Panos Prevedouros Really Is Male
UPDATE: Justices Decline to Reconsider Turtle Bay
UPDATE: Dela Cruz: Farm House Size Limit “Dead”
Topic Page — Climate Change
Topic Page — Energy in Hawaii
Seed Corn, Not Food or Fuel, Is Hawaii’s Biggest Crop
How Green is Abercrombie? He Won’t Show
Honolulu Residents Don’t Want National Recognition
Kahuku Leads Way in New Wind Technology
Islands Bear the Brunt of Climate Change
National Pundits Pile On Civil Unions Debate
Civil Union Proponents Promise Lawsuit
Hawaii Reacts to Civil Unions Veto
Lingle Vetoes 32 Bills on Final Day
Lingle Invites Justice Levinson to HB 444 Decision
State Weighing Rule Changes for 2 Million Acres
Mission of Top Hawaii Marine: Energy Independence
Ten Years, Ten Endangered Species Indictments
June 2010
Land Use: A Right or a Privilege?
Proponents of small government gathered Tuesday to discuss the failings of the state’s land use policy. A UH law professor, a retired planning professor and a Cato Institute fellow argued that the state has too many rules, which drive up costs and make development too difficult.
Vacation Rentals Turn Kauai Neighborhoods Into Resorts
A proposed county ordinance would not only allow vacation rentals on agricultural land but also would loosen enforcement on them elsewhere on the Garden Isle. Some locals say they’re losing their neighborhoods to tourists.
‘Major Breakthrough’ In Sewer Lawsuit
Mayor Mufi Hannemann on Monday announced a proposed agreement to end years of litigation over Honolulu’s wastewater system. The gubernatorial candidate takes a victory lap, but the city had few options but to settle and avoid potentially massive fines from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Drought Puts Hawaii Ranchers Up the Creek
Facing a year-long rain shortage in what has become the driest state in the country, Big Island ranchers are struggling and will be for some time yet. Costs are up, revenues are down, cows are dying and fewer are being born.
Florida Beach Ruling Could Shape Hawaii Sand Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court said last week that the Sunshine State can rebuild its beaches despite complaints from landowners. The impact of the decision for Hawaii property rights is being interpreted differently by the state attorney general and a lawyer representing beachfront owners.
Honolulu Rail Heading Right at Them
The release of the Honolulu rail project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement last week was a warning whistle for homeowners and business that lie in the way of the train. Buying parcels and relocating tenants will be costly, but eminent domain fights are unlikely to delay construction.
Rail Could Force Out Church, Homes After 50 Years in Pearl City
After half a century in one place, Alpha and Omega International Christian Ministries and the Alipio family could be forced to find new homes if the Honolulu rail project acquires their Pearl City properties.
Aiea Businesses Unknowingly in the Path of the Train
The city has already contacted landowners whose parcels might be acquired for the rail project. But some tenants — including four businesses alongside Kamehameha Highway — are being kept in the dark by their landlords.
Waihee Watershed Project Could Help Climbing Fish
A trip to the Waihee Stream in Windward Oahu highlights the historic, cultural and ecological significance of healthy watersheds. Local groups are working to educate people and open the stream for spawning fish.
Back From The Dead, An ‘Extinct’ Native Tree Thrives
The haha tree, extinct in the wild, is enjoying a resurgence in Oahu’s Kahanahaiki Gulch thanks to the U.S. Army. Its natural resources program was created to mitigate the armed forces’ heavy footprint on Hawaii’s delicate ecosystem.
Rats Threaten Native Species, Army Steps Up Attack
U.S. Army efforts to limit destruction of endangered and native species of plants and animals by the rodents includes an eradication program. A pilot project in Makua Valley using a grid of snap traps around the most sensitive species has had some success.
Helicopters Dropping Poison: Coming Soon To A Forest Near You?
The Army is considering a campaign that would drop rat poison from helicopters on large swaths of inaccessible forest for the first time on the main Hawaiian Islands. Army officials say the rodenticide that would be used isn’t dangerous to people.
TOPIC PAGE: Endangered Species In Hawaii
Hawaii has been referred to, not necessarily flatteringly, as the “endangered species capital of the world.” The islands’ physical isolation means plants and animals carried here by wind, water and wings have had millenia to evolve into their own unique species found nowhere else on earth.
Controversial Landfill Expansion To Receive Trash Soon
A recent visit to the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill reveals a 93-acre expansion will be ready to accept garbage within two or three months — just around the time when the current facility reaches capacity. But in two years, the question could remain: What should we do with our trash?
Less Water Than Expected Put Back In West Maui Streams
The Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management on Thursday announced its decision on a six-year-old fight over Maui’s largest waterways, returning to the streams around one-third of the amount recommended by one commissioner last year.
Hawaii Supreme Court Rejects Beach Ownership Case
The state’s highest court, split 3-2, let stand an appeals court ruling that said the state can’t take ownership of new sand that builds up on beaches without paying oceanfront landowners for it.
TOPIC PAGE: Solid Waste In Hawaii
Hawaii’s residents and visitors create millions of tons of solid waste each year — 1.8 million tons on Oahu alone. The waste includes everything from yard clippings and leftover food to metals and plastics.
Even For Deaths Of Rare Birds, Criminal Charges Extraordinary
Criminal indictments in Hawaii environmental cases usually target “lone gunmen” who kill endangered species, not corporations. But in case of endangered seabirds on Kauai, the U.S. Justice Department took on the island’s electric co-op.
Federal Definition Of ‘Farm’ Sheds Light On Honolulu Debate
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a farm as any operation that has $1,000 in agricultural sales, a simple mechanism that contrasts with putting emphasis on the size of a farmhouse the way Honolulu is proposing to do.
Memorial Day Lantern Numbers Are In
All but three of the 2,353 lanterns that were distributed at Ala Moana Beach Park on Memorial Day are accounted for, event organizers said Monday.
HC&S Manager: No Plans To Develop Sugar Lands
A conversation about water, agriculture and development with Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar’s Chris Benjamin.
Chris Benjamin Interview: The Full Transcript
An in-depth conversation with the manager of Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Co.
Escaping Lanterns? Not On Our Watch
Event organizers go to great lengths to ensure that thousands of lanterns floated out to sea each Memorial Day don’t get far and don’t have a chance to contribute to the epidemic of marine debris.
Forest Saved, Now The Real Work Begins
The purchase of more than 3,500 forest acres in Central Oahu was celebrated Wednesday as the fulfillment of what had once been seen as an impossible mission. But the struggle to manage a new state forest reserve has just begun.
Tightening Farm Rules Might Sound Good, But Could Hurt Real Farmers
Under a proposal before Honolulu City Council, new farmhouses on Oahu would be limited to 1,500 square feet, 40 percent smaller than the national average. No explanation for the size limit is given in the bill.
TOPIC PAGE: Agriculture In Hawaii
In recent decades, Hawaii has started the difficult transition from a mono-crop culture that put heavy emphasis on exports like pineapple and sugarcane to diversified agriculture that encourages farmers to grow, among other things, fruits and vegetables for local consumption.
May 2010
Money Questions Remain For Mililani Solar Plan
Central Oahu could soon be home to the largest solar farm in the state, but it remains to be seen how HECO will limit the hardship that the 20-megawatt proposal creates for ratepayers.
What Rules Maui Water, Law or Sugar?
With the Water Commission expected to hand down its decision on Maui’s Na Wai Eha case soon, the debate isn’t just about jobs or restoring a native way of life. In a deeper sense, it’s about the principles by which water will be managed in Hawaii.
TOPIC PAGE: Water in Hawaii
Systems to divert, store and deliver that water have allowed for the proliferation of crops like pineapple and sugar and for development into areas far from natural streams.
Developers to Environmentalists: You Can’t Handle The Truth
In a new brief filed with the Hawaii Supreme Court, the development community smacks “militant” conservationists across the face.
Land Limits Hawaii’s Quest For Food, Energy Independence
How much land would it take to sustain a biofuel operation sufficient to replace the state’s supply of fossil fuel? How many acres would be needed to grow enough food to feed its population?
The Public Hearing That Wasn’t
Thursday’s Land Use Commission hearing on the Koa Ridge project was held in a surprisingly small conference room, minimizing testimony and dialog.
Clean Energy Splits Environmentalists
Several ambitious ideas for clean energy could help Hawaii become self-sufficient, but concerns about endangered species, open space and other issues have pit environmentalists against each other.
Honolulu Rail Project Highlights Burial Concerns
The largest infrastructure project in Hawaii history will serve as a test case for how the governments of the state and its most populous city deal with the people charged with protecting Native Hawaiian remains: the burial council.
TOPIC PAGE: Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is Hawaii’s largest environmental organization, promoting its agenda by lobbying state leaders, offering its support for political candidates and educating the public through hikes and clean-up activities.
Hawaii Supreme Court Rejects Wal-Mart Burial Case
The state’s highest court on Monday said it would not hear an appeal to a case stemming from the inadvertent discovery in Honolulu of 42 sets of Native Hawaiian burials.
TOPIC PAGE: Historic Preservation
Hawaii has a rich history, which means that the state today faces a wide range of historic preservation issues. Among them are the preservation of Native Hawaiian sites and buildings from after Western contact.
A Long History Of Requests To Develop Farmland
A list of petitions to change land use designations from Agricultural and Conservation to Urban starts to fill in the where, when and who of 50 years of growth.
As Beaches Grow, Do Property Rights Grow With Them?
The Hawaii Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in on a state law that established public ownership of accumulated sand. Beachfront homeowners have called the law an unfair land grab.
Tough Times, Tough Compromises for Clean Energy Advocates
Alternative energy may be a hot topic, but efforts to create new programs didn’t garner support unless they helped make up the state’s $1.2 billion deficit.
We’ve Had the Driest Winter In 30 Years, But What Does It Mean?
Less rain fell during the past wet season than during almost every other winter since Hawaii became a state. As the dry season begins with drought, what does it mean for the summer?
Is Hawaii Ready For ‘Worst Case Scenario’ Oil Spill?
With the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatening the ecosystem and economy of multiple U.S. states, Hawaii leaders say a response system is in place to deal with a spill in the Pacific.
Maui Water Dispute Heating Up
A fight over water rights in East Maui has been raging for years. Local farmers, the state’s last remaining sugar producer and others could soon get an answer.
Maui Pineapple Co. Dragged Into Human Trafficking Story
One of Hawaii’s oldest and most successful agricultural companies is implicated in a new report detailing immoral and potentially illegal labor practices involving a company that provides migrant Thai workers.
Hawaii Takes Ad Hoc Approach to Preserving Farmland
A proposed community in Central Oahu is the latest example of Hawaii’s case-by-case approach to development in agricultural areas that has conservationists worried about our future prospects for food and fuel self-sufficiency.
State Has Shifted More Than 80,000 Acres to Urban Uses Since 1964
Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Hawaii Land Use Commission has provided documents that show how land originally placed in the agricultural and conservation districts has been urbanized in the last half-century.
Lessons for Hawaii in the Gulf Coast Oil Spill?
In the two weeks since a drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, millions of gallons of oil have bubbled to the surface. How would Hawaii be affected if something similar happened in nearshore waters?
Top
April 2010
American Lung Association: Honolulu air is top notch
Honolulu ranked No. 3 among U.S. Cities for its clean air, according to a report released today by The American Lung Association. The city of about 905,000 benefits from low year-round particle pollution, according to the association’s 2010 State of the Air report. Hawaii’s biggest city also received a grade of “A” for its Ozone quality.
Impacts of Turtle Bay ruling clear for resort, unclear for Hawaii
The implications of the Hawaii Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of the Oahu resort, outlined in today’s article, aren’t restricted to whether a planned expansion is good or bad for the North Shore.
Implications of Turtle Bay ruling are both narrow and wide
A recent Hawaii Supreme Court decision requiring the owner of the North Shore resort to restudy the impacts of its expansion plans was a victory for conservationists.
Turtle Bay developer asks Supreme Court to reconsider
Turtle Bay’s developer has asked the Hawaii Supreme Court to reconsider its April 8 ruling that requires an updated environmental review before a planned expansion of the resort area can move forward.
Has Earth Day ‘sold out’?
The New York Times has an interesting look at how the environmental holiday has progressed from its 1970 anti-corporate, grassroots, teach-in beginnings to today’s slick marketing campaigns that exploit the desire to be green to hawk soy toys and bus trips to flower shops.
At Hoopili, a choice between farming and housing
The Hoopili debate is heating up. The Star-Bulletin today published a commentary from Ewa Beach resident Rodolfo Ramos in favor of the project, which calls for more than 11,000 homes. Ramos, who served on the Ewa Task Force for Hoopili developer D.R. Horton, argues that the loss of about 1,500 acres of farmland is a drop in the bucket, representing less than one percent of 160,000 acres of available ag land in the state.
‘Plastic soup’ in Atlantic Ocean, too
The miles-wide patch of small, nearly invisible plastic is a serious threat to seabirds, fish and marine mammals, officials say. They speculate that up to 80 percent of the rubbish is generated on land, reaching the ocean through rivers and streams on the densely populated East Coast of the mainland United States. The phenomenon is most pronounced between Washington, D.C. and Cuba, one research team says.
What does the Turtle Bay decision mean?
The court essentially ruled that just because an Environmental Impact Statement has been approved, that doesn’t mean the approval lasts forever. The Turtle Bay EIS was 25 years old, and conditions in the surrounding environment had changed enough, the court said, that it needed to be redone, even though the project’s plans haven’t changed.
E Komo Mai (Welcome)
As a small island chain in the middle of a vast ocean, Hawaii has limited natural resources. But the demands we put on the land are great. If Oahu were its own state, it’d be the most densely populated in the country. We have to make the most with what we have. Like all of you, I’m curious about how we do that.
TOPIC PAGE: Impacts Of Land Use In Hawaii
While Hawaii’s landmass has remained essentially static over that time, the human demands on it have grown and changed, impacting the land and its flora and fauna in numerous ways.
TOPIC PAGE: Land Use In Hawaii
What can be done with our land, who decides and why. We also ask whether our process and rules result in the best best decisions for future generations.
TOPIC PAGE: Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
The department was created shortly after Hawaii became a state to manage the state’s public lands, water and coastal areas. Key areas of focus are soil conservation, forest reserves, aquatic life, wildlife, state parks and historic sites, and all activities that occur in those areas.
TOPIC PAGE: Land
Stewardship of the land is so central to the Hawaiian identity that the State of Hawaii has established as its motto “Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono,” translated literally to “The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness.”
