Last month, the Commission on Water Resource Management took an unprecedented, but widely applauded, step when it approved a request from the Department of Hawaiian Homelands for a reservation of its water rights in Kona. The DHHL requested last December … Continued
More Fences Cut: In June, the Department of Land and Natural Resources disclosed that vandals had cut openings in two miles of fences around Pu`u Maka`ala Natural Area Reserve on the Big Island. According to a DLNR press release, “vandals … Continued
Recent news coverage of the proposed NextEra-Hawaiian Electric merger has revealed a fact that is disturbing to many Hawai`i residents concerned about NextEra’s commitment to distributed generation, which is manifested most frequently in the form of rooftop solar panels. As … Continued
It was big news last winter when Hawaiian Electric Company – HECO, the utility that serves O`ahu – announced that it had reached power purchase agreements (PPAs) with developers of six large-scale solar farms that would, when operational, feed more … Continued
The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) has issued its first “true-up” for the Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) bonds. The true-up, a required element of the program approved by the Public Utilities Commission, is a periodic accounting … Continued
Moving Targets: Four years ago, the Hawai`i Clean Energy Initiative issued a “road map” identifying strategies for reducing the use of fossil fuels in the transportation sector. So how is that working out? Last month, the state released a draft … Continued
“This pathogen poses a serious threat to Hawai`i’s flagship native tree species whose loss would be catastrophic for the diversity, structure, and function of Hawai`i’s remaining native forests and the services they provide.” — “First Report of Ceratocystis wilt on … Continued
The rapid spread of the fungus killing `ohi`a on the Big Island is scary enough. The prospect that it could take down `ohi`a on other islands is a nightmare. How to stop it at the shores of Hawai`i island was … Continued
In mid-May, the Hawai`i Department of Agriculture’s Plant Pest Control Branch issued pest advisories on the hala scale, Thysanococcus pandani Stickney, and the bagrada bug, Bagrada hilaris Burmeister. The hala scale was first detected in Hawai`i on trees in Hana, … Continued
At a recent meeting of the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, veteran observers of the state Legislature summed up their take on the session that came to an end last month. “My optimism was shaken this session,” said Mark … Continued