Hawaii State Senator Gary L. Hooser

By State Sen. Gary L. Hooser and published in local newspapers

The Hawaii Superferry Fiasco: It did not have to be this way

The Lingle administration's refusal to acknowledge the egregious errors of the Department of Transportation in its handling of the Hawaii Superferry matter is troubling. The Hawai'i Supreme Court has ruled unequivocally that the DOT erred and that state-approved environmental impact studies should have been required and must be conducted.

The response of the administration and Superferry management in actually accelerating the Hawaii Superferry operations schedule has been appalling. It was in-your-face arrogance that utterly ignores the court's decision and clear mandate.

The message from the fifth floor of the State Capitol to Hawai'i residents is clear: The interest of a single big business takes precedence over the interests of the environment, the law and the people.

Rather than recognize and acknowledge the DOT's mistake and seek a collaborative way to resolve the issue, and rather than taking a leadership role or at least a brief time-out to gather the various parties together in search of an acceptable solution to the complex dilemma they have created, Gov. Linda Lingle, the DOT and the Hawaii Superferry are choosing to once again ignore the law in their zeal to ram the project through the process, regardless of public, environmental or legal concerns.

The law is clear, and the Hawai'i Supreme Court has verified this fact. When public funds are used and the resulting impacts are potentially significant, an official and comprehensive environmental assessment is required.

For the past two years, thousands of our residents, primarily from the Neighbor Islands, have made this claim and requested that the DOT and the Hawaii Superferry comply with the law.

A wide variety of community and environmental organizations have initiated lawsuits calling for a formal environmental review.

County councils on the Big Island, Maui and Kaua'i have passed official resolutions making the same request. The state-sponsored Environmental Council of the Office of Environmental Quality Control issued a formal message stating that an official environmental review should have been required.

A majority of Neighbor Island senators introduced legislation in the recent session and the Senate passed out a bill offering a compromise that would have required an environmental impact statement while allowing for the commencement of operations for the Superferry.

Instead of accepting a win-win solution that would have served both the Superferry and Hawai'i's fragile environment, the DOT and the Hawaii Superferry have steadfastly refused all requests and all offers of compromise, choosing instead the arrogance of the steamroller approach. After all, they had been able to block all attempts by the Legislature, they had the full support of the governor, and the benefit of hundreds of millions of dollars invested by a politically powerful and influential board of directors.

In the end, we live in a nation of laws, and it is refreshing to be reminded that the rule of law prevails.

The Hawai'i Supreme Court, the highest court in our state and an independent third branch of our government, reviewed the arguments presented by both sides and came to the unanimous conclusion that the DOT was wrong and an officially sanctioned environmental review is required.

It did not have to be this way. If the Lingle administration had from the beginning put the interests of the public, the law and the environment ahead of the interests of the Hawaii Superferry, we would not be having this discussion.

In all likelihood, by now the environmental assessment would have been completed and the business operating, albeit with environmental mitigating factors in place.

Instead, because of the administration's mismanagement, we had an escalating and potentially dangerous conflict brewing at our harbors, and today we have a community even more cynical and less trustful of our government, a business whose future is in doubt and the potential of many millions of dollars in lawsuits ahead for the state.

State Sen. Gary L. Hooser, D-7th District (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau), is Senate majority leader.

Senator Fred Hemmings has again gone off the deep end in his zeal to protect the honor of his Governor and the titular head of his Republican party. In his most recent diatribe he strays from mere expanded hyperbole and inflammatory embellishment to the telling of outright lies and widely exaggerated distortions of the truth.

Until I called him on it this morning the opening paragraph of his mostly incoherent rant accused me of:

"...standing on the pier on Kaua‘i yelling into a megaphone as surfers and kayakers in the ocean dangerously and illegally blocked the Superferry. Nearby, other demonstrators were pounding on passengers' vehicles and letting the air out of tires.” Wrote Senator Hemmings

This is a total fabrication.

Hemmings at my request has since removed the above paragraph but the rest of the written piece is still rife with fantasy, misinformation and a complete fabrication of events that just did not happen – interspersed with jargon direct from the “talking points” put out by the Hawaii Superferry, DOT and Governor’s office.

Remember, this Senator Hemmings is the same fellow who fancies himself as an icon of the Hawaii surfing world. And is the same Senator Hemmings who recently called for the use of force by armed National Guard troops against Kauai surfers, canoe paddlers and swimmers who voiced their objections to the Hawaii Superferry. If he would take a moment to talk to his former surfing and paddling buddies on Kauai, before he sicks the National Guard troops on them, perhaps he might better understand where they are coming from on this issue.

Additional Note added 9/10/07: Hemmings piece was significantly re-written and edited a second time, which improved things somewhat but it still contains significant misleading and inaccurate statements.