The long-awaited settlement of a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the state Land Use Commission was signed in February. Lawyers from both the Attorney General’s office and the company that, for a while, proposed to develop the Villages of `Aina Le`a … Continued
June 2017
Kekaha Kai State Park Gets Permit For Upgrades Over Surfer’s Objection No surfer likes it when one of their favorite breaks is crowded. That includes Hawai`i island resident Janice Palma-Glennie, who sits on the executive committee of the Surfrider Foundation’s Kona … Continued
Nearly a year after NextEra’s proposed takeover of Hawaiian Electric was voted down by the Public Utilities Commission, four of the renewable energy projects that were axed by Hawaiian Electric – at the behest of NextEra, some claim – have … Continued
`Aina Le`a Update: DW `Aina Le`a, LLC, which owns 1,072 acres of land near Waikoloa, on the Kohala coast of the Big Island, is suing the state of Hawai`i for $200 million as a result of actions by the Land … Continued
With a piddling fraction of a $146 million Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) fund being loaned out over two years, it is easy to understand legislators’ frustration with the program. But will a new measure that the Legislature is poised … Continued
The Hawai‘i Green Infrastructure Au- thority (HGIA) is required to deliver quarterly reports on its progress in distributing Green Energy Market Securitization loans and advancing the state’s goals of energy independence to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). If House Bill … Continued
House Bill 957 has been enthusiastically supported by the Department of Education (DOE), the teachers’ union, parents, contractors, and others too numerous to list here. It calls for allowing up to $46.4 million in Green Energy Market Securitization funds to … Continued
When the state’s Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) loan program was established in 2013, all parties involved believed that customers who took out loans for installation of photovoltaic and other energy saving technologies would have the option of paying off … Continued
Are minor actions permitted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR)— or any other state agency, for that matter — exempt from environmental review under the Hawai‘i Environmental Policy Act (HEPA)? A beach cleanup, a night of camping … Continued