OPPOSE SB1074 SD2 HD1: Uphold Environmental Review Laws
/March 28 update
SB1074 SD2, which would have allowed commercial activities to be commenced and continued indefinitely without first complying with our environmental review law, was unfortunately passed with amendments by the Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs and now heads to Conference Committee. Mahalo nui to the over 52 individuals and organizations who submitted testimony in opposition and special thanks to Reps Poepoe and Perruso for their no votes on this measure.
March 25 update
The integrity of our environmental review law still remains threatened as SB1074 SD2 HD1 continues to move through the legislature. This measure has been scheduled for its final committee hearing in the House Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs this Thursday, March 27 at 2pm in room 325 (watch online here).
Thanks to your advocacy, SB1074 SD2 HD1 has been substantially amended in its last two committee hearings - including by narrowing its scope to permits issued under the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation’s statutory authorities, and by sunsetting its provisions in two years.
However, the bill as written still 1) subverts the environmental review process, allowing commercial uses of our ocean waters and coastal areas - including our small boat harbors - to proceed without any accounting for potential impacts to water quality, public and cultural practitioner access, public safety, public health, and cultural and ecological resources, among other public interests, much less conditions to help minimize those impacts; and 2) removes any incentive for the Department of Land and Natural Resources to provide timely and immediate relief to the Kaʻanapali ocean tour operators whose permits have now been put on hold, due to the DLNR’s years-long refusal to comply with our environmental review law.
Moreover, this bill can still be amended in the next few weeks - and even after its potential enactment - to threaten a much larger range of public interests in our environment, including by expanding its provisions and removing its sunset date.
Please take a moment to testify on this measure to ensure the future of our natural and cultural resources is not undermined for the DLNR’s convenience and obstinate refusal to comply with our environmental review law.
Sample testimony for SB1074 SD2 HD1
Aloha Chair Tarnas, Vice Chair Poepoe, and members of the House Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs Committee,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly OPPOSE SB1074 SD2 HD1, a dangerous measure that continues to subvert the environmental review process and by extension, the public interest in our coastal and marine environment.
I appreciate that this measure has been amended to narrow its scope and to provide a sunset date for its provisions. However, it still flies in the face of our environmental review process as a mechanism for transparency, public engagement, due diligence, and prudent planning, before commercial uses of our vital coastal areas are permitted. Under this bill as currently drafted, the Department of Land and Natural Resources would be allowed to turn a blind eye to significant potential impacts to water quality, public and cultural practitioner access, public safety, public health, and cultural and ecological resources, among others, in authorizing the commercial use and occupation of our small boat harbors, beaches, and nearshore waters without the completion of any environmental review. Moreover, the negative consequences of this bill may be exacerbated by amendments made prior to its passage, as well as after its potential enactment into law.
The continued movement of this measure will also prolong the uncertainty and fear that has been expressed by the Kaʻanapali ocean tour operators, whose operations have been disrupted by the DLNR’s refusal to comply with the environmental review law or accept a settlement offer that would address community concerns regarding water pollution, water safety, and public access. The DLNR’s acceptance of such an offer would allow these tour operators to be issued permits nearly immediately, rather than wait the months it would take for this measure to be enacted into law. However, the DLNR has little incentive to agree to such a resolution if this bill remains alive and moving.
Please HOLD SB1074 SD2 HD1.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter "SB1074" where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information and your written testimony, select your testimony option(s)—in-person + written, remotely + written, written only. Please consider providing verbal testimony (in-person or remotely) if you are able!
Note: Virtual testimony option may be disabled 24 hours before the hearing.
If you are testifying via Zoom, be sure to review these instructions (page 4)
March 19 update
SB1074 SD2, which would have allowed commercial activities to be commenced and continued indefinitely without first complying with our environmental review law, was unfortunately passed by the House Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land Committees - albeit with significant amendments to minimize its scope and to establish a sunset date.
Notably, this measure is driven by a desire to provide relief to Kaʻanapali ocean tour operators, whose commercial operating permits are on hold after a lawsuit challenged the DLNR’s failure to conduct any environmental review for those particular permits. Ironically, these businesses could get much more immediate relief if the Department of Land & Natural Resources (DLNR) agreed to a settlement offer addressing the wastewater, public safety, and public access concerns underlying that litigation - which the DLNR has been reluctant to do, given the legislature’s continued consideration of this bill.
Mahalo nui to Representatives Iwamoto and Poepoe for voting no on this bill, and to Representatives Shimizu, Belatti, and Souza for expressing their misgivings and reservations about the erosion of our bedrock environmental protection law.
March 17 update
Thanks to your advocacy, SB1074 SD2 was substantially amended in its last committee hearing, to mitigate its potential to effectively dismantle our environmental review process. However, it continues to undermine the very purpose of environmental review as a proactive planning and public input mechanism, by allowing certain actions approved without any environmental review to be continued for a year or indefinitely, while legal challenges and compliance issues are resolved.
SB1074 will be heard in the House Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land Committees on Tuesday, March 18, at 9am. Please submit testimony in opposition, sample testimony and instructions below.
Sample testimony
Aloha Chair Lowen, Chair Hashem, Vice Chair Perruso, Vice Chair Lamosao, and Members of the Committees,
Please OPPOSE this unnecessary and misguided measure that circumvents one of our fundamental environmental protection laws.
Under SB1074 SD2, government decisionmakers could issue and continually renew permits for the unlimited commercial extraction of public trust resources, the continuous diversion of streams, or other profit-driven, exploitative activities, without any consideration of the environmental consequences of their decisions - or of the input of cultural practitioners or members of the public, or feasible ways to mitigate any harms. This would fly in the face of the very purpose of our environmental review law, the Hawaiʻi Environmental Protection Act, which for 40 years has served to ensure thoughtful planning, transparency, and decisionmaking before certain actions impacting our islands are allowed to occur.
Significant, irreparable, and needless harms to our environment, cultural practices, public health, and more could accumulate for years or decades - as we have seen with the East Maui stream diversions - if this bill is passed.
Please encourage the Department of Land and Natural Resources to instead explore the settlement offer that would resolve the litigation being used to justify this bill, or to apply its existing categorical exemptions to do the same - without eroding one of our islands' bedrock environmental protections.
Therefore, I urge you to please HOLD SB1074 SD2.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter "SB1074" where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information and your written testimony (no oral testimony will be accepted)
Be sure to share this with your friends and networks!
February 28 update
SB1074 SD1, which would allow private entities to continue previously unlawfully-authorized actions without first fulfilling the requirements of our environmental review law, was unfortunately passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, although with a number of amendments to mitigate its potential impacts, by narrowing the actions that could be continued without environmental review, and placing a one year limit on such actions (subject to extension by a court). Mahalo nui to the more than 199 individuals and organizations who submitted testimony in opposition, and special thanks to Senator Gabbard for his vote with reservations.
HB661 HD1, a similar bill to SB1074, was also passed by the House Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs Committee. The bill was also amended to limit what types of actions could be continued while environmental review is pending. Thank you also to the 139 individuals and organizations who submitted testimony opposing this measure.
There will be more opportunities to defeat these bills that put our natural and cultural resources at risk—stay tuned!
February 25 update
Two remaining problematic bills, HB661 HD1 and SB1074 SD1, that would allow private entities to continue previously, unlawfully-authorized actions without first fulfilling the requirements of our environmental review law, are being considered this week. Please take a moment to submit testimony in opposition to these bills. Sample testimony and instructions below.
HB661 HD1 will be heard on Thursday, February 27 at 2pm by the House Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs Committee and SB1074 SD1 will be heard on Wednesday, February 26 at 9:40am by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sample testimony for HB661:
Aloha Chair Tarnas, Vice Chair Poepoe, and members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly oppose HB661 HD1, which would allow a vast range of illegally authorized activities to continue, potentially indefinitely, without a required consideration of their environmental, cultural, and social impacts to our islands and our present and future generations.
Our environmental review law allows decisionmakers and the public to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
Unfortunately, the failure of certain departments to comply with this law before authorizing certain actions - such as permitting the take of an unlimited number of of ecologically critical marine specimens for the aquarium trade, or the decades-long dewatering of streams in East Maui - has resulted in severe and in some cases irreparable ecological, cultural, social, and economic harms that could and should have been avoided through the prudent planning embodied in our environmental review law.
By allowing illegally authorized activities to continue while environmental review challenges are resolved - something that has taken literal decades in the dewatering of East Maui’s streams - this bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing unlawful and irresponsible agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict tremendous generational harms and injustices upon our islands and communities.
I urge you to HOLD HB661 HD1.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Sample testimony for SB1074:
Aloha Chair Rhoads, Vice Chair Gabbard, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
My name is [Your name] and I STRONGLY OPPOSE SB1074 SD1, which would allow illegally authorized activities to be continued, potentially indefinitely, without a consideration of their environmental, cultural, and social impacts to our islands and our present and future generations.
This measure puts the cart before the horse when it comes to environmental planning and protection. Our environmental review law works by allowing decisionmakers to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
This bill would do the opposite, allowing activities that have been previously, but unlawfully, authorized without environmental review, to continue while environmental review is pending. As we have seen in cases such as East Maui, where stream diversions by a politically connected plantation were allowed to continue for nearly 20 years after an environmental assessment had been ordered, years’ or decades’ worth of devastating yet potentially avoidable impacts could occur without the benefit of environmental review, should this measure be passed into law.
By allowing illegally authorized activities to continue while environmental review compliance is pending - something that has taken literal decades in the dewatering of East Maui’s streams - this bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing unlawful and irresponsible agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict tremendous generational harms and injustices upon our islands and communities.
I urge you to HOLD SB1074 SD1.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions:
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter "HB661/SB1074" where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information and your written testimony (no oral testimony will be accepted)
Be sure to share this with your friends and networks!
February 13 update
Good news! HB123 was deferred by the House Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land Committees, HB658 was deferred by the House Energy & Environmental Protection Committee, and SB22 was deferred by the Senate Water & Land and Agriculture & Environment Committees—these measures are essentially defeated for this session! Mahalo nui to all that testified on these bills.
Unfortunately, HB661 was passed out of the House Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land Committees with amendments. Mahalo nui to everyone that testified on this measure and special thank you to Reps Iwamoto and Poepoe for their no votes and Reps Belatti, Shimizu, and Souza for their votes with reservations.
SB1074, a bill similar to HB661, was also passed out of the of the Senate Committees on Water & Land and Agriculture & Environment. Mahalo nui to everyone that testified on this measure and special thank you to Sens Gabbard, Richards, and Rhoads for their votes with reservations.
There will be more opportunities to defeat these bills that put our natural and cultural resources at risk—stay tuned!
February 10 update
SB1074, similar to HB661, would allow a vast range of illegally authorized activities to continue, potentially indefinitely, without a consideration of their environmental, cultural, and social impacts to our islands and our present and future generations. This measure is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment on Wednesday, February 12 at 1:05pm in room 229 (watch online here).
Please take a moment to submit testimony in OPPOSITION to SB1074, in order to uphold Hawaiʻi’s critical environmental review process. Sample testimony and instructions below.
Sample testimony for SB1074
Aloha Chairs Inouye and Gabbard, Vice Chairs Elefante and Richards, and members of the Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment Committees,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly oppose SB1074, which would allow a vast range of illegally authorized activities to continue, potentially indefinitely, without a required consideration of their environmental, cultural, and social impacts to our islands and our present and future generations.
Our environmental review law allows decisionmakers and the public to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
Unfortunately, the failure of certain departments to comply with this law before authorizing certain actions - such as permitting the take of an unlimited number of of ecologically critical marine specimens for the aquarium trade, or the decades-long dewatering of streams in East Maui - has resulted in severe and in some cases irreparable ecological, cultural, social, and economic harms that could and should have been avoided through the prudent planning embodied in our environmental review law.
By allowing illegally authorized activities to continue while environmental review challenges are resolved - something that has taken literal decades in the dewatering of East Maui’s streams - this bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing unlawful and irresponsible agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict tremendous generational harms and injustices upon our islands and communities.
I urge you to HOLD SB1074.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
SB22, similar to HB123, would allow the Department of Land and Natural Resources to evade any assessment of the environmental impacts of its fishery management decisions - including decisions that may open up our ocean resources to unmitigated commercial exploitation. This measure is also scheduled to be heard in the Senate Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment on Wednesday, February 12 at 1:05pm in room 229 (watch online here).
Please take a moment to submit testimony in OPPOSITION to SB22 to protect Hawaiʻi’s fisheries and by extension, the ocean environment that is a foundation of our way of life. Sample testimony and instructions below.
Sample testimony for SB22
Aloha Chairs Inouye and Gabbard, Vice Chairs Elefante and Richards, and members of the Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment Committees,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly oppose SB22, which would allow the Department of Land and Natural Resources to evade any assessment of the environmental impacts of its fishery management decisions - including decisions that may open up our ocean resources to unmitigated commercial exploitation.
Our environmental review law allows decisionmakers and the public to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
Unfortunately, the Department of Land and Natural Resources has a long and notorious history of turning a blind eye to its critical statutory and public trust responsibilities, such as by authorizing a fishery program that permits the take of an unlimited amount of marine life for aquarium purposes, without any environmental review. This measure would not only legitimize this longstanding practice that has been affirmed as illegal by the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, but excuse the department from its environmental review responsibilities for similar fisheries-related actions with potentially deleterious ecological, cultural, recreational, climate resilience, and economic impacts.
This bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing illegal agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict potentially irreparable harms to our marine life and the vast public interest in our ocean environment.
I urge you to HOLD SB22.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter "SB1074/SB22" where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information and your written testimony, select your testimony option(s)—in-person + written, remotely + written, written only. Please consider providing verbal testimony (in-person or remotely) if you are able!
*Note: Virtual testimony option may be disabled 24 hours before the hearing.If you are testifying via Zoom, be sure to review these instructions (page 4)
HB661, HB123, and HB658 Bill Background
Our environmental review laws help to safeguard our native ecosystems, cultural sites, public health, economy, and quality of life from unintended and avoidable impacts, by ensuring that government decisionmakers consider impacts to these and other vital public interests in actions involving state or county lands or funds (among other specified circumstances), as well as ways these impacts might be mitigated. These reviews enable informed decisions that balance and mitigate long-term impacts on our environment, culture, and society - saving the state from immeasurable social, ecological, economic, and other impacts.
Three measures, HB661, HB123, and HB658, would seek to end-run recent Hawai‘i court rulings on the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ failure to abide by our environmental review laws, and in the process, open the door to the continued rubber-stamping of commercial and other activities, without considering their environmental impacts. These bills all have hearings on Tuesday, February 11, with HB661 and HB123 scheduled for 9:15am before the Energy & Environmental Protection and Water and Land Committees in room 325 (viewable online here) and HB658 scheduled for 10:15am before the Energy & Environmental Protection Committee in room 325 (viewable online here). Please take a moment to OPPOSE these measures - sample testimony below.
Sample testimony for HB661 (see below for testimony submission instructions):
Aloha Chair Lowen, Chair Chair Hashem, Vice Chair Perruso, Vice Chair Lamosao, and Members of the Committees,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly oppose HB661, which would allow a vast range of illegally authorized activities to continue, potentially indefinitely, without a required consideration of their environmental, cultural, and social impacts to our islands and our present and future generations.
Our environmental review law allows decisionmakers and the public to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
Unfortunately, the failure of certain departments to comply with this law before authorizing certain actions - such as in the take of an unlimited number of of ecologically critical marine specimens for the aquarium trade, or the decades-long dewatering of streams in East Maui - has resulted in severe and in some cases irreparable ecological, cultural, social, and economic harms that could and should have been avoided through the prudent planning embodied in our environmental review law.
By allowing illegally authorized activities to continue while environmental review challenges are resolved - something that has taken literal decades in the dewatering of East Maui’s streams - this bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing unlawful and irresponsible agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict tremendous generational harms and injustices upon our islands and communities.
I urge you to HOLD HB661.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Sample testimony for HB123 (see below for testimony submission instructions):
Aloha Chair Lowen, Chair Hashem, Vice Chair Perruso, Vice Chair Lamosao, and Members of the Committees,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly oppose HB123, which would allow the Department of Land and Natural Resources to evade any assessment of the environmental impacts of its fishery management decisions - including decisions that may open up our ocean resources to unmitigated commercial exploitation.
Our environmental review law allows decisionmakers and the public to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
Unfortunately, the Department of Land and Natural Resources has a long and notorious history of turning a blind eye to its critical statutory and public trust responsibilities, such as by authorizing a fishery program that permits the take of an unlimited amount of marine life for aquarium purposes, without any environmental review. This measure would not only legitimize this longstanding practice that has been affirmed as illegal by the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, but excuse the department from its environmental review responsibilities for similar fisheries-related actions with potentially deleterious ecological, cultural, recreational, climate resilience, and economic impacts.
This bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing illegal agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict potentially irreparable harms to our marine life and the vast public interest in our ocean environment.
I urge you to HOLD HB123.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Sample testimony for HB658 (see below for testimony submission instructions):
Aloha Chair Lowen, Vice Chair Perruso, and Members of the Energy & Environmental Protection Committee,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly oppose HB658, which would allow the Department of Land and Natural Resources to evade any assessment of the environmental impacts of its ocean use and management decisions.
Our environmental review law allows decisionmakers and the public to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
Unfortunately, the Department of Land and Natural Resources has a long and notorious history of turning a blind eye to its critical statutory and public trust responsibilities, such as by operating a commercial boating permitting regime without any environmental review and without due regard for the environmental, cultural, recreational, and broader economic concerns of the public. This measure would not only legitimize this longstanding practice that has been affirmed as illegal by our court system, but also excuse the department from its environmental review responsibilities for similar ocean use authorizations with potentially deleterious ecological, cultural, recreational, climate resilience, and economic impacts.
This bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing illegal agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict potentially irreparable harms to the vast and varied public interests in our ocean environment.
I urge you to HOLD HB658.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter "HB661/HB123/HB658" where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information and your written testimony, select your testimony option(s)—in-person + written, remotely + written, written only. Please consider providing verbal testimony (in-person or remotely) if you are able!
*Note: Virtual testimony option may be disabled 24 hours before the hearing.If you are testifying via Zoom, be sure to review these instructions (page 4)