The Hawai`i Supreme Court unanimously affirmed today that responsible business development needs to adhere to the rule of law and Chapter 343 – and that Hawai`i’s environmental laws should apply equally to everyone.

Yet, it is not lost among the Sierra Club board and membership that today’s decision is the unfortunate result of what could have easily been avoided if the Hawai`i Department of Transportation and the Hawai`i Superferry had prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on day one.  For the Sierra Club, this has never been about opposing concepts of business development or mass transit in Hawai`i, but about fulfilling our obligation to make sure Hawai`i’s environmental laws are applied consistently.  

If there is a silver lining in the Supreme Court decision, it is a clear recognition that the essential role of public comment in the EIS process under Chapter 343 cannot be circumvented.  We hope that in the future companies will embrace the public comment process as a positive tool to create better projects.  When employed in this positive sense, public comments can serve to anticipate and highlight issues for resolution before they are implemented and become too costly or complicated to be fully resolved.  Ultimately, this will lead to a better balance between human activity and our unique and fragile environment that is at the heart of Hawai`i’s economy and well-being.