Help get HB1350 heard in its next committee! Call before Tuesday 2/16
/HB1350 will create a data mapping tool that surveys local environmental justice conditions to inform policy. The Office of Planning, University of Hawai‘i, Department of Land and Natural Resources, and other stakeholders will lead in developing it. The bill includes a list of specific factors relating to community demographics, pollution burdens, and proximity to hazardous sites that would be evaluated and updated at least every 3 years. The bill also includes public outreach on how to use the mapping tool and appropriates funding to make the tool a reality.
HB1350 was heard in its first committee (EEP) on Tues, Feb 9 where it was passed unanimously. One amendment was made to move the appropriation from OEQC to the Office of Planning to develop the mapping tool.
Take action today!
We need your help getting HB1350, the environmental mapping tool bill, heard in its next committee! Taking action only takes a minute—please call and email Rep. Nakashima (Chair of Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs) and ask him to hear HB1350!
Please call and email his office between now and Tuesday, even if it is over the weekend. When you call, if they do not answer, be sure to leave a message so when they are back in the office they hear from you!
Rep. Nakashima: 808-586-6680; repnakashima@capitol.hawaii.gov
Aloha Chair Nakashima, my name is _____ and I’m a resident of ______. Please schedule to hear and pass HB1350 in your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs by Thursday, February 18. This bill would establish an environmental justice mapping tool that will help our state integrate social justice and environmental concerns into decision making processes. This is an important step towards a truly just and sustainable future for our islands. Thank you!
Why this bill is important
Data informs policy. A community informed environmental justice mapping tool is critical to a policy development that is just and equitable.
For decades, environmental racism has plagued communities rural, low-income, Hawaiian, and communities of color. What if we had a mapping tool guided by the concerns of community members? Assessing not only the concentration of hazardous dirty energy, but also the concentration of land, streams, and residents impacted by utility scale energy projects. To usher in a just and equitable transition towards a clean energy economy, leadership must come from communities on the frontlines of environmental disruption at its core.
Restorative work must be done at the ground level, and frontline communities know that solving one problem while creating another is no solution at all.
Can one mapping tool do all that? Absolutely. Equipping community members, advocates, and decision-makers with the right tools, strategically makes for stronger institutional change. We are advocating for HB1350 to include frontline community members as representatives of environmental justice communities, and EJ advocates with expertise to be consulted for input. Our goal is to push for a bill that creates a “community-led advisory council” to help develop this critical engagement and outreached framework, not after it’s made.
For too long, policy has ignored and turned a blind eye to the injustices faced by communities. Seeing is believing.