Environmental nonprofits set 2011 legislative priorities

From Marti Townsend, KAHEA

Food security, sustainable energy, Native Hawaiian culture top the list of priorities for the 2011 session of the Hawaii Legislature announced by the Environmental Legislative Network, a roundtable of two dozen Hawaii-based organizations involved in environmental policy. ELN convened a forum at the State Capitol during the first week of the session to hear the priorities of more than 20 groups, citizens and agencies tracking legislation. 

“The time is now to make fundamental changes,” said Marti Townsend at the ELN meeting.  “This year Hawaii has a real opportunity to finally flip our dependence on imported food and energy and embrace culturally appropriate management paradigms.” 

The Hawaii Farmers Union and Hawaii School Garden Hui echoed the need for more agricultural education and resilience in Hawaii’s food systems. "Agriculture is alive in the hearts, minds, and hands of Hawaii’s youth who are experiencing nature through school gardens and other outdoor, applied learning opportunities," said Hui member, Lydi Morgan Bernal. “They are the future farmers and pono stewards of our lands, waters and communities.”

ELN members recognized that respect for indigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices is key to sustainable development and proper management of Hawaii’s environment. Accordingly, ELN members prioritized proposals that addressed fundamental concerns for the rights of Hawaii’s indigenous people.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs identified three environmental priorities: tightening the requirements for the sale of state lands; establishing basic training for appointed officials on the rights of Native Hawaiians; and setting minimum requirements for all cultural impact assessments included in environmental impact statements or assessments.

“OHA is committed to safeguarding Hawaii’s land and cultural resources,” said Clyde Namuo, OHA’s chief executive officer.  “This benefits Native Hawaiians and all of the people of Hawaii.”

In addition, groups at the ELN forum highlighted the need to continue support for land conservation funds and to find additional dedicated funding to address invasive species.  “These funds and programs play a direct role in protecting the state’s forests and fresh water supply, and prevent invasive species from doing further harm to our economy, environment and quality of life,” said The Nature Conservancy’s Mark Fox.  “We ask the Legislature to continue to recognize that a healthy economy in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is dependent on a healthy environment.”

Also at the top of the list for legislative initiatives this session were: reducing plastic bags, improving invasive species controls, protecting endangered species, greater shoreline setbacks and funding the Climate Change Taskforce.

ELN members will use the new Capitol Watch system to track bills and resolutions during the session.  “We know the legislative process can be opaque to most people,” said Robert Harris of the Sierra Club.  “The Capitol Watch is intended to demystify the process so people can follow their passion this legislative session.”  The Capitol Watch system is open to the public and available at www.sierraclubhawaii.com/capitol-watch.

2011 legislative priorities announced by the Hawaii ELN:

> Conservation Council for Hawaii, Marjorie Ziegler, director

1. Remove take restrictions on public hunting of game mammals.  This modernizes the game program so that hunters can take more animals for food, and prevents the State from protecting these introduced animals at the expense of native Hawaiian species, essential watersheds, cultural sites and agricultural lands.
2. Increase funding and identify permanent sources of funding for agricultural inspections at ports of entry and for invasive species control, research, and outreach on each island.  Invasive species threaten public health, quality of life, the environment, the culture, watersheds, agriculture and the economy.
3. Defend the Natural Area Reserve Fund, Land Conservation Fund, and Rental Housing Trust Fund against funding cuts and raids.  These funds – supported by the conveyance tax – promote wildlife conservation, watershed protection, land acquisition in the public interest, and affordable housing.

> Environmental Caucus of the Hawaii Democratic Party, Food Security and Sustainability Subcommittee, Juanita Kawamoto

1. Support establishment of a co-op livestock feed mill
2. Promote agricultural education through the development of school gardens and farms
3. Establish task force to better support farmers on agricultural leases

> Environmental Caucus of the Hawaii Democratic Party, Energy and Climate Subcommittee, Charles Ice

1. Improve the Barrel Tax
2. Establish a Smart Grid
3. Encourage a better bicycle system

> Environmental Caucus of the Hawaii Democratic Party, Natural Resources Subcommittee, William Sager

1. Improve Invasive Species Quarantine by adequately funding the Invasive Species Committees rapid response teams and passing a resolution to improve quarantine inspection system that will minimize the introduction of alien pests, including joint federal-state inspection facilities at ports of entry, such as Honolulu International Airport and Honolulu Harbor.
2. Ban the use of plastic bags and Styrofoam food containers in Hawaii.
3. Establish a 2,000-foot conservation easement coastline setback on all state-owned lands on the Big Island.

> Friends of Lanai

1. Reject any proposals that sidetrack or “streamline” the EIS process for any industrial power plant project.  Considering the age, impatience and history of the Mainland developer for the proposed industrial wind power plant on Lanai, it is very possible that Castle and Cooke, DBEDT and other state agencies, will try again to fast-track permit approvals, the EIS review process and/or other oversight provisions for renewable energy projects; e.g., DLNR attempting to change their conservation use district rules.
2. Insure that all public meetings with agendas that could impact LanaI include at least one meeting on Lanai.  The recently announced list of public meetings for the DLNR’s review of conservation district rule changes includes visits to every island EXCEPT Lanai.
3. Increase the number of Department of Conservation and Resource Enforcement officers on Lanai from one to three.  It is impossible for one individual to effectively police this island of 90,000 acres.

> Hanalei Watershed Hui, Makaala Kauamoana, executive director

Defend and build the capacity of community-based stewardship programs to ensure long-term management of natural resources by those who rely on them most.

> Hawaii School Garden Hui

Form public-private partnerships to strengthen pre-kindergarten through post-secondary agricultural education and farm-to-school programs.

> Hawaii’s Thousand Friends and League of Women Voters

1. Ensure best possible mass transportation system for Oahu
2. Ensure system-wide improvements to the Honolulu Sewer System

> KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, Marti Townsend, program director

1. Promote public access to the beach by establishing a “citizen suit provision,” which would allow individuals to enforce existing public access rights.
2. Encourage the development of sustainable food systems, including proper regulation of open ocean aquaculture and commercial fishing, strict limitations on genetic modification of food, and support for local farmers.
3. Prevent the weakening of Hawaii’s environmental review requirements (Haw. Rev. Stat. §343).

> Life of the Land, Henry Curtis, executive director

Improve transparency in public utility rates. After the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved a power purchase contract, the cost figures should be made public. Ratepayers and taxpayers deserve to know how much different sources of electricity cost. Renewable energy companies would gain certainty understanding cost parameters.

> My Organic Mom, Routh Bolomet

1. Healthy Hawaii First act
   
   A) Ban any chemical, food additive, ingredient, practice or procedure that will diminish the nutritional value or biological balance of our people’s health, threaten our food supply or resources that we use to grow our food in: water, air, soil.
   
   B) Regulate chemical trespass and chemical transformation due to Hawaii’s trade winds and temperatures that exceed 76 degrees. Enforcement funded by fines and food import tax.
2. Sustainable Hawaii – Green Reward Incentive tax reduction programs
   
   A) All new building permits must require new buildings or developments to be at least 75 percent self-sustainable. All materials and systems brought into Hawaii must be reused or recycled without additional cost to the State or Counties.
   
   B) Upgrade State and County power generation infrastructure; C) Make these green systems available to the public for residential infrastructure reduction thru a mass purchasing facility (State Sustainability Depot).
3. Food Sustainability
   
   A) Encourage backyard gardens – lessening the need to import food items and encouraging the consumption of food with higher nutritional values.
   
   B) Establish organic agricultural parks to support farmer success. Housing must be made available to the farming families on part of the land in a residential complex away from the fields. Fund this proposal by food import tax and 10 percent of food sales.

> Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, Alan Murakami

1. Establish a private attorney general right of action to impose penalties for violation of the burial protection laws and to clarify the breadth of available legal remedies to protect ancient Hawaiian burials from desecration by development.
2. Demand greater accountability for the production of homestead awards and begin to make adequate funding available to the DHHL, starting with an appropriation to pay for the installation of a water system to support pastoral homesteading at Honoka‘a.
3. Appoint a cultural monitor to oversee and report on the implementation of programs to recognize and respect the ability of native Hawaiian prisoners in private prisons on the continent to observe religious/cultural practices while incarcerated without interference from prison officials.

> Office of Hawaiian Affairs

1. Remedy the inconsistent quality of cultural impact assessments by codifying minimum requirements for assessing the impacts of a proposal on cultural practices; name OHA as the accepting authority for CIAs.
2. Require all council, board and commission members that have an obligation to protect Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights and related resources to attend a training course on their public trust responsibilities to Native Hawaiians.
3. Amend laws regulating the sale of state-controlled land to better enable decision-makers to assess the proposed sales and determine whether or not the lands were part of the public lands of the Kingdom of Hawaii or not.

> PONO, Keiko Bonk, director

1. Pursue adequate state funding for the recovery of Hawaii’s 439 endangered species with focus on Hawaii State being out of compliance with ESA and MMPA laws for the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal.  Meet urgent need for funding for seal outreach and education for resident and visitor population.
2. Ban Hawaii's reef wildlife taking for sale by the international aquarium trade, which has a strong focus on endemic Hawaiian species.

> Pono Aquaculture Alliance

Encourage sustainable open ocean aquaculture by establishing minimum requirements for all open ocean aquaculture operations in state waters. 

> Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, Robert Harris, executive director

1. Establish food sustainability standards that lay out Hawaii's vision for the amount of local food it will produce and create metrics to determine our success in achieving these goals.  Our state policy should encourage growing pono and eating ono.
2. Continue to reduce Hawaii's opala (waste) addiction by reducing the number of paper and plastic bags sold, requiring recycling of CFL bulbs and creating a mandatory "opt-in" requirement for the distribution of telephone books.
3. Require the use of native plants in public landscaping to ensure our government takes a leadership role in protecting indigenous plant species throughout Hawaii.

> Surfrider Foundation, Stuart Coleman

1. Ban single-use plastic bags, following the lead of Kauai and Maui, or establish a small fee for each single-use plastic or paper bag used to reduce the amount of waste going into our landfills and encourage people to use reusable bags.
2. Create a pilot program to promote water recycling and the re-use of gray water from washers, showers and non-kitchen sinks for 10 percent of Hawaii’s homeowners, saving money for individual owners and the counties by reducing the amount of water going into our wastewater treatment plants.
3. Create an initiative that offers qualified homeowners low-interest loans and/or tax incentives to upgrade from cesspools to septic tanks to reduce leaching sewage and water pollution, especially in rural and coastal lands.
4. Establish a 2,000-foot shoreline setback on all Big Island state land from Ulupo Point to Volcanoes National Park to protect the historic Ala Kahakai Trail and preserve public access to the coast.

> The Green House Hawaii, Betty Gearen and Gabriela Orante

1. Reduce the environmental footprint of schools
2. Promote environmental education in schools.

 > The Nature Conservancy, Mark Fox, Legislative Coordinator

1. Defend the Natural Area Reserve Fund, Land Conservation Fund and Rental Housing Trust Fund against funding cuts and raids.  These funds – supported by the conveyance tax – promote wildlife conservation, watershed protection, land acquisition in the public interest, and affordable housing.
2. Increase funding and identify permanent sources of funding for agricultural inspections at ports of entry and for invasive species control, research, and outreach on each island.  Invasive species threaten public health, quality of life, the environment, the culture, watersheds, agriculture, and the economy.
3. Support planning and resilience in our natural and constructed infrastructure to the effects of climate change. Ultimately, a small portion of the barrel fee (5 to 10 percent) should go to addressing the inevitable effects of climate change caused by burning fossil fuels.  A good start would be to actually fund and organize the Climate Change Task Force created by the Legislature.

> Trust for Public Land, Lea Hong, Executive Director

Defend the Natural Area Reserve Fund, Land Conservation Fund and Rental Housing Trust Fund against funding cuts and raids.  These funds – supported by the conveyance tax – promote wildlife conservation, watershed protection, land acquisition in the public interest, and affordable housing.

> Voter Owned Hawaii: Working for Fair Elections, Kory Payne, executive director

Support improvements to the outdated partial public funding program by supporting the Big Island public funding pilot program, which gives county council candidates the chance to qualify for a competitive amount of money to run for office.

> Windward Ahupuaa Alliance, Shannon Wood, executive director

1. Re-establish the Climate Change Task Force – Act 20, Special Session 2009 – for which funding was never released by Gov. Linda Lingle after her veto was overridden. Thus, its objectives – to identify current and potential impacts of global warming and sea level rise, to estimate the costs to mitigate damages caused by them and to suggest legislative and administrative policy changes primarily at county and state levels – were never carried out.
2. Create a temporary task force comprised of representatives from state and county public agencies, private sector businesses, non-governmental organizations, academic researchers, legal experts and legislators to examine and evaluate Chapter 205 – Land Use Commission – to identify sections which need legislative modifications reflecting 21st century social, cultural, environmental and economic shifts in policies and standards – especially section 205-17, Land Use Commission decision-making criteria.
3. Establish a voluntary tax refund check-off fund  ($3 to $5 per refund check) to provide additional financial support for the Natural Area Reserve Fund, the Land Conservation Fund and Rental Housing Trust Fund. Hawaii taxpayers already have set up similar check-offs for domestic violence programs, school repairs and maintenance, publicly-funded elections and the state library system.