June 23, 1987. After years of planning and negotiating the maze of permits needed for major coastal undertakings, the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i was ready. On this day, work was to start on its biggest project to date, the … Continued
In February 1980, the Ad Hoc Committee on the Advancement of OTEC for Hawai`i reported that people attending a legislative workshop had been told that, “by 1990, OTEC plants in Hawai`i could provide as much as 660 megawatts to O`ahu.” … Continued
Since the mid-1970s, ocean thermal energy conversion has been generously supported by state funds. Federal funds, through the Department of Energy, were for a time less abundant, especially during the Reagan administration, which did not assign a high priority to … Continued
Much of the money that has been spent in the name of advancing ocean thermal energy conversion has been funneled through the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. Federal funds channeled to PICHTR (according to PICHTR’s reports to the … Continued
In Kona the forest must be right in the line of settlement, and not on the tops of mountains as in other districts, for there is no watershed here. We must have moisture for water, and naturally we must have … Continued
This edition of Environment Hawai`i is a case history of the management of a substantial property owned by the state but run like a medieval fiefdom. It would take a corps of researchers far greater than ours to determine if … Continued
The state has been more than generous in its dealings with F. Newell Bohnett. By allowing him to pay back rent owed from 1980 to 1985 without interest on the accumulated amount ($400,140), the state has enriched Bohnett by roughly … Continued
In 1982, the Department of Land and Natural Resources was presented with the first evidence that F. Newell Bohnett was logging koa. A letter September 13, 1982 from the artist Herb Kane informed the Board’s Big Island representative that “salvage … Continued
For some reason or other known only to Providence, our rarer and interesting native trees have been concentrated in certain places where they form a veritable bonanza for the delight of the delving botanist. – C.S. Judd “Botanical Bonanzas” (1932) … Continued
The County of Hawai’i has not much more luck getting Pu’uwa’awa’a Ranch to comply with its rules and regulations than the state has had. The most conspicuous area of noncompliance has occurred in the area of building permits for structures … Continued