The House and Senate today continue to work on a revised draft of a bill to allow the Hawaii Superferry to operate while an environmental review is conducted. The proposed legislation was initially drafted by the Attorney General's office and submitted to the legislature yesterday.House and Senate leaderships agree with the AG's provisions that permit the Superferry to operate while an EIS is being conducted. The requirement to proceed directly to the EIS is supported.
However, the legislature wants the bill to require operating conditions on the Superferry intended to mitigate adverse environmental effects.
Both the Superferry and plaintiff-environmentalists have been informally requested to submit proposed operating conditions that will be considered for inclusion in the bill.
House and Senate leaderships will have further discussions today and this weekend with each other. The Speaker and Senate President also will meet with the Governor on Saturday.
No deadline has been imposed, but the consensus of both House and Senate is to get an amended draft to their respective caucuses as early as possible.
3 comments:
Please be sure to include limitations on the quantity and purpose of vessels included in any special law you propose.
In a recent LA times article Garibaldi stated his initial fleet was to be comprised of three or four ships. It only takes the two ships we know about to provide ferry services.
What are the extra ships for?
BillyBudd
i hope leadership surfaces that will look at the issues of letting the course of action fall into place. the courts have ruled and their position should be respected. the system of checks and balance works when we let them. now is not the time to correct governor lingle's mistake with another mistake. haven't we made enough of them already?
i believe, when all is said and done more is said than done. with that said, what is the harm in allowing the EA/EIS process to unfold and take the appropriate amount of time to complete before HSF operations begin? there are many reasons to believe that if the people of hawaii want a ferry system we will have one but lets make sure that the ferry sytem we choose has the qualities we value. chiefly, it needs to be both safe for the consumer and safe for the environment. no whale bashing or HOT DU contamanents and it must be affordable. i dont think vehicles are necessary for our ferry system but with some restrictions like no 4x4 or pick ups, and no natural resource collections for return rides. lastly and most importantly, management of the ferry should act responsibly. the decisions and behavior of the HSF corporation has left a poor taste in many people's mouths. the actions of the state and the corporation has created such a division on the islands. we need to come together on the issue not be pushed/coerced further apart. there is lot of support for a ferry system but this one as proposed doesn'nt seem so super. lets go back to the drawing board and do the ea and make some adjustments to the proposal
Representative Say owes the public an explanation for the belated disclosure of his son's employment by Hawaii Superferry. His failure to recuse himself from all aspects of the Legislature's consideration of this issue in light of this obvious conflict of interest only strengthens the perception that the fix is in.
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