Bad Mauna Kea Bills Move Through Legislature

From Rob Perez’s excellent coverage of the Mauna Kea bills currently moving through the state legislature:

Two bills (HB 1174 and SB 502) giving UH authority over the 11,000-plus acres of ceded lands it leases from the Department of Land and Natural Resources have been approved by two committees each in the House and Senate, worrying environmentalists, Native Hawaiian groups and others.

The bills permit UH to regulate public and commercial uses of the land, and critics believe that authority would be broadly applied. Lawmakers call the legislation a “work in progress.”

“This is a very, very bad idea,” said Marti Townsend, program director of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance.

Critics say transferring such oversight to UH would be a huge mistake in light of the school’s poor track record on Mauna Kea and the dangerous precedent the action would set, essentially turning over responsibility for the land to its leaseholder or developer.

See full article at: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090222/NEWS03/902220351/1001