PDHblog
This is a place for members of Progressive Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.

as a resident of oahu, i may have been in the minority when i welcomed the supreme court handed down its decision against superferry and the state, or when i cheered on the kauai protesters’ blockade of nawiliwili harbor, or most recently as i applaud the maui circuit court decision keeping superferry out of kahului harbor until an EA is completed.

today’s advertiser reports on both the maui circuit court decision and a call by lingle and some among the legislative leadership for a special session to save superferry. on the one hand, you’ve a judge saying the state and superferry are in breach of the law by allowing superferry to operate without an EA and on the other you’ve got the other two government branches saying, “alright then, we’ll just rewrite the law to correct our mistake.”

if i sound bitter and angry here, well i am. you’ve got our executive branch of government make exceptions for a business in violation of state law and allowing superferry to run without an EIS and are then shocked to learn that they screwed up. now you’ve got superferry executives and supporters trying to scare and threaten (at least that’s what it seems like to me) the rest of us by saying that if superferry isn’t allowed to operate (still in clear violation of state law) then it’s going to have to leave. “oh no,” we’re supposed to say as we cower and weep at the possibility of no superferry, “we can’t let that happen, the law and the environment aren’t really that important right?”

over 200 people will lose their jobs
hawai‘i will appear to be anti-business
people want another means of inter-island travel
the state committed $40 million to this project

these are among some of the reasons being given in favor of a special session. of course, in the great political diplomatic tradition, lingle attempts to make us all feel warm and squishy:

“The only fix I see at this time to allow that service to be here for the people — and I don’t see it as saving a company, I see it as saving an option for the people of Hawai’i — the only way to do it now, in my opinion, is through some sort of special legislation,” Lingle told reporters after the meeting.

see, now it seems to me that if she were really interested in what’s in the best interests of the people of hawai’i SHE WOULD HAVE FOLLOWED THE LAW and forced superferry to do an EIS. but no no, she wants superferry here, whatever the legal and environmental cost.

don’t get me wrong; before i knew the whole story, i was looking forward to taking a trip on superferry to one of the neighbor islands. then all this went down and, honestly, my feeling now is if they leave, tough. i might feel differently had superferry not spit in the face of the supreme court when it ruled against them, moving up its start date and offering discounted fares.

when it’s all said and done, i’m all for a superferry-type service in hawai’i, however i’d like to see it run by people who actually care about our unique culture and environment.