New & Notworthy

posted in: March 2008, Water | 0

No Greenbacks for Greenhouse Panel: Lately, Governor Lingle has stressed the importance of Hawai`i turning to “clean energy” and reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. In remarks to the international climate change summit in Honolulu last month, for example, she chatted up her administration’s initiatives on renewable energy and mentioned how she signed the Global Warming Solutions Act, “which mandates that statewide greenhouse gas emissions be reduced to 1990 levels by the year 2020.”

“Only two other states, California and New Jersey, have similar laws,” she told the delegates.

What Lingle didn’t mention is that she has so far refused to release the funds that are needed to make that legislation work. The state Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Task Force, which is charged with developing the baseline data required for complying with the statute, needs to retain consultants as soon as possible to do this, under the task force’s work plan.

Last November, the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism put in a request to the governor’s office for release of the $200,000 in funds the Legislature appropriated for its work in the 2007-08 fiscal year.

But according to Estrella Seese, the energy economist with DBEDT who is the chief staff person for the task force, “We haven’t received the governor’s approval to release the funds. We’re still waiting.”

A Setback for Del Monte: Some 30 years after a catastrophic spill at Kunia, O`ahu, of a fumigant used on pineapple fields, Del Monte’s efforts to have its insurers pay the costs of clean-up have come to an end – in state court, at least. On December 26, the Hawai`i Supreme Court issued its opinion in an appeal of a lower court order filed in 2001, which determined that Del Monte’s insurers were responsible for indemnifying and defending the company in the Environmental Protection Agency’s investigation of the spill, which eventually led to the site being placed on the federal Superfund list of contaminated sites.

Del Monte Fresh Produce (Hawai`i), Inc., a successor to the Del Monte Corp. that owned the site when the spill occurred, argued that it should be covered by insurance policies, even when those policies, issued to Del Monte Corp., contained clauses preventing them from being assigned to other entities. The lower court sided with Del Monte Fresh, but the Supreme Court found that “liability insurers have the same rights as individuals to limit their liability, and to impose whatever conditions they please on their obligation,” so long as it is consistent with law and public policy. The case was remanded to the lower court, “with instructions to enter summary judgment” in favor of the insurers.

A Clarification – and Apology: In the article appearing on pages 6 and 7 of the December 2007 issue of Environment Hawai`i (“USGS Seeks Temporary Releases for Study of Instream Values”), Delwyn Oki of the U.S. Geological Survey was identified as a witness for Hui O Na Wai Eha and Maui Tomorrow in a contested case being heard by the Commission on Water Resource Management. Although Oki was called as a witness by those parties, he has clarified that he is not testifying in support of any particular party nor does the USGS have any vested interest in the outcome of the contested-case proceeding.

“I am testifying in the contested case as a representative of the U.S. Geological Survey because we have information that we feel may be relevant to the case and because it is part of the overall mission of the U.S. Geological Survey to provide information and understanding needed for the best use and management of the nation’s water resources for the benefit of the people of the United States,” Oki stated in an email to Environment Hawai`i. He added that the USGS is conducting a study of the diverted streams in West Maui to provide information that may be useful for establishing instream flow standards, although the U.S. Geological Survey will not be involved in recommending instream flow standards.

Also, we apologize to Mr. Oki for misspelling his name in the article.

— Patricia Tummons

Volume 18, Number 9 March 2008

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