Letters | 6-3-15

Making vs. affirming a decision on TMT

Making vs. affirming a decision on TMT

I think most folks view Gov. David Ige’s Mauna Kea story as an attempt to improve conditions on Mauna Kea and to find common ground for all sides. I mistakenly wrote that the governor was going to make a decision about Mauna Kea. I was incorrect. He was merely affirming a decision that had already been made by the Board of Land and Natural Resources. In doing so, the governor protects the institutional process that is the state. At the end of the day he is compelled to do so. He also protects the state from lawsuits that TMT would certainly be entitled to file after all the effort they put into getting this far in the state’s flawed permitting process.

The court will eventually decide if the BLNR’s decision is lawful. TMT is off the hook and the consequences will fall to the state and within the state’s sphere, only the Native Hawaiians have a direct interest. I hope that the governor’s pronouncements that the University of Hawaii and the BLNR will have to do a better job and be better stewards will be followed with funding from the Legislature.

There are 96 Division of Conservation and Enforcement (DOCARE) officers across the state. They enforce rules that apply to the fourth largest coastline in the U.S. — 23,000 acres of inland surface water, 3 million acres of coral reef, the largest tropical rainforest in the nation, the 11th largest state forest, 2 million acres of conservation land, 1.2 million acres of other state lands and also those same officers’ conduct community outreach and training so ordinary people like us don’t mess it up. In total, the state puts out about eight cents per square mile to protect our natural resources. Contrast that with the $1.4 billion that TMT will be spending to mess up just a few acres.

Cleverly, the governor has thrown the “pass or fail” option onto TMT. Personally, I would not sink $1.4 billion into a project, only to have to tear it down in less than 20 years. That’s a bad investment. TMT must pursue an extension on the lease beyond 2033 and judging from the governor’s statements they will have to do so without the state’s complicity. I wouldn’t count on the university or BLNR to get much public support.

Yogi Berra is credited with saying “never make predictions, especially about the future.” TMT will not throw good money after bad because, after all, for the investors that’s what it’s all about. It’s not really about furthering science and exploration on the origins of the universe or the origins of man, it’s about profiting from that notion.

Charles Young

Honaunau

Learning to speak English a good idea

Kudos to “Mike” Kerr for writing an open letter supporting more English language help to immigrants, but let’s hold the horses. I wholeheartedly agree with her, immigrants should learn to speak English if they choose to move to the U.S. After all, nobody asked them to come here, and if they did, then the minimum they should do is to learn to speak the language of their new home.

However, do we really expect them to be so proficient that they wouldn’t need an interpreter in court proceedings? That’s way too big of a task in my honest opinion.

John S. Rabi

Kailua-Kona