What’s happening with nearly 1800 acres formerly owned by the Morgan Stanley, Dowling and Goodfellow partnership? New owners took charge of the former Maui Prince Hotel and Makena Golf course at the end of August 2010. ATC Makena purchased the property for approximately $190 million, a fraction of the $575 million paid for the same […]
County to Allow LED Street Lights
Maui County spends $2 million a year for street lighting. Changing to LED lights could halve that. But as the ordinance is written now, LED lights are not allowed. The Administration wants to change that. Unfortunately LED lights have a lot of the blue spectrum which interferes with the Observatory and distort colors. Read more […]
DOT Wants to Exempt Themselves From Permits
SB2358 (?) Measure Title: RELATING TO CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS. Report Title: CIP; County Permits; Exemptions Description: Authorizes the state director of finance to waive county permitting requirements for pending state CIP projects for which funds were released in fiscal years 2010-2012 and 2012-2014. Companion: Package: None Current Referral: PGM, WAM Introducer(s): […]
Airport Runway: Repair or Redo?
Discussion in Maui News about the 3 proposed alternatives to re-making the runway. Apparently it costs about $1,000,000 per year to keep patching the runway which the Federal government makes the State pay. But the Feds will help with re-doing it, so the state feels that would be cheaper. Read the whole article which gives […]
‘Red tape’ is a red herring when it comes to protecting our environment
By Gary Hooser Judging from a variety of not so very subtle signals coming out of the legislature, the 2012 legislative session will feature a full frontal assault on environmental protections. Framed under the banner of eliminating “regulatory barriers” in order to stimulate economic development and create jobs, numerous bills to dismantle important environmental protections […]
Clean Energy Goals Are A ‘Steep Uphill Climb’ [Civil Beat]
he Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative was inked four years ago, setting up the mandate for the state to achieve 70 percent clean electricity (40 percent renewable generation, 30 percent energy efficiency) by 2030. Since then, our total electricity usage has steadily declined, from 10,585 GWh in 2007 to 9,986 GWh in 2011. And thanks to […]