State letting TMT slip away
No, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) officials were not bluffing. They are indeed on a worldwide hunt to find a backup to Mauna Kea, and sites in India, Chile and the Canary Islands are contenders.
While Plan B has yet to be revealed, the realization that TMT officials are seriously searching for an alternative site for the next- generation telescope should strike fear in state officials, who seem to be dawdling their way to a new contested case hearing. This perceived lack of urgency is unfortunate, when so much is at stake.
In February, TMT executive director Ed Stone sent a clear message: the $1.4 billion project will need assurances from the state that it can obtain a permit for construction on Mauna Kea by the end of this year or early next year, or it will take its telescope to another mountain.
The TMT project was derailed by Native Hawaiian protesters and a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling, and has landed back at the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, which must hold a new contested case hearing.
The board is “close to selecting a hearings officer,” a state Attorney General spokesman said. Once a hearings officer is selected, the new hearing can begin.
But no one knows how long this will play out, and weeks went by before the case was sent back to the land board. The state is pushing deadline.
And now, alas, pressure is building.
Media in India, Chile and the Canary Islands have either reported visits by a delegation of TMT officials or announced they are coming. Back in 2009, Cerro Armazones, the mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert, was announced as TMT’s runner-up location following a worldwide search, and its 10,000-foot summit has been studied thoroughly by TMT officials.
A TMT spokesman said this week that Hawaii’s tallest mountain at 13,796 feet is still the project’s first choice, but several alternative sites are being eyed. TMT’s Facebook page recently featured pictures of a fact-finding trip to an observatory site at La Palma in the Canary Islands.
The state must do everything possible — within the bounds of proper process, of course — to ensure that it does not lose the TMT to another site. Such a monumental loss would signal to the world that Hawaii is not the place to build, let alone do business.
No one can blame Stone and the TMT International Observatory Board for considering the next option. They’ve already spent several years and $170 million getting ready to build and thought construction was imminent. The state, however, botched the process for obtaining a permit.
The high court concluded that the state land board broke with its own protocols by issuing the project’s conservation district use permit conditionally before holding a contested-case hearing. The proper procedure, the court said, would have been to hold off on any permitting decision until after the lengthy, quasi-judicial hearing process.
Sadly, it was not a shock to learn the state didn’t follow protocol – after the loss of another large-scale projects that stood to benefit Hawaii. In a word, Superferry.
In 2005, the state made a crucial decision to exempt the Superferry project from some environmental review requirements, including an environmental impact statement. The system launched in 2007, but was blocked by protesters, and days later the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled the state Department of Transportation should have required additional environmental reviews for the project.
Lawmakers went into a special session to pass a law allowing Superferry to continue operating while an environmental impact statement was performed. But that law was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2009; the Superferry was halted again and soon went bankrupt.
A similar debacle can’t afford to be repeated, especially when the TMT comes with a bounty of economic benefits.
Once completed, the TMT is expected to generate $26 million annually in observatory operations and would employ 140 people. The observatory also has agreed to contribute $800,000 per year to the Office of Mauna Kea Management and $200,000 per year to the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, plus $1 million per year for science, technology, engineering and math education on Hawaii island.
That is a lot to lose. That and, more important, the state’s reputation and future ability to attract world-class projects.
31 responses to “State letting TMT slip away”
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I hope I’m proven wrong, but I believe that TMT will end up elsewhere. This state tends to act and react very slowly and in fits and starts. It is also unfortunate that so many people of the culture that used the heavens and stars to sail the Pacific ocean’s expanse to navigate and discover these islands are so against this natural progression of discovery and technology. I think that David Kalakaua would be disheartened at these turn of events.
Agree..the entire fiasco was terribly handled from beginning to end. Truth is that Hawaii is just not capable of handling these high-tech projects. Weak leadership from a wretched Governor, poor administration by monopoly party administrators and general sloth in the public, combined with a tiny number of Hawaiians trying to speak for the general public (or even all Hawaiians) ended this project. They are never coming here. Truth is, many out here feel all we are capable of is an easy money tourist industry. Trouble is that the industry is vulnerable to international shocks. Many out here are fine with hauling bags for Japanese, Chinese and Koreans thinking it is all our public education can really support. Hawaii’s doom grows closer….
And aloha Friday to you too, allie!
Hawaii’s doom grows closer…. Are you about to complete your graduate degree? 😉
yes…august!
“The observatory also has agreed to contribute $800,000 per year to the Office of Mauna Kea Management and $200,000 per year to the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, plus $1 million per year for science, technology, engineering and math education on Hawaii island.” – I hope TMT decides to clawback the money they pledged. Too bad they can’t charge interest as well.
This is evidence of a systematic failure resulting from our traditional, deeply rooted one hand washing the other system. How to break the mold is really the issue of greater magnitude here. How can anything from “outside” break the home rule mentality that reflexively keeps anything out that could possibly interfere with the one hand washing the other system. Money doesn’t seem to be enough to break it open. No one wants to hear it said but the one sure way to break it up is through the Federal Government focusing its anti trust laws on that system. This would require that local federal authorities escape from the system that gave them their jobs in the first place and to which their first loyalty lies. Not an unusual situation. A lot of small countries have the same syndrome.
hugs her mythman who sees behind the curtain
Thank you for mentioning Superferry. That is what we are all thinking. After its gone, because of a few vocal locals, everyone will wish we still had the option. Build TMT and kill HART.
Both should be built.
Agree!
Instead of hosting a magnificent monument to humankind’s innate intellectual curiosity, Mauna Kea will remain a barren testament to remnants of a stone-age civilization.
yup..anther hawaii fiasco
Facilitating the process to build the TMT should be one of David Ige’s highest priorities, yet we hear nothing from the governor’s office. To my mind, he has been a great disappointment.
Hopefully he is working behind the scenes. Don’t understand why it is taking so long to find a hearings officer. It would really be sad if this project goes elsewhere. Might even change Hawaii to Republican for a few years.
He is hiding from the problem. The protesters, most of whom are not Hawaiian, know they can intimidate the Governor and the state. I expect them to return again and again on other projects.
For those in the know, the ultimate responsibility of this debacle was the leadership of the state in many divergent quarters: congressional delegation, legislature, UH BOR, the then Governor’s office, DLNR and OHA. In short, in about 2009 all these parties coalesced around the idea of placing TMT on a fast tract for approval and made both implicit and explicit nods of approval to green light the permitting process. One must also place in historical context that the Haleakala telescope had just gone through a bruising section 106 consultation because of the requirements of NEPA. It is obvious that all the powers at be, including TMT and the NSF (National Science Foundation) wanted to avoid these requirements, hence their was an overt insitutional avoidance of this process. Ironically, while more time consuming, a PA (programmatic agreement) could have been reached and TMT could have been probably advanced with more delineated consideration for cultural resources….and that’s the real back story.
Why is it taking so long to find a “hearings officer”? I can’t believe the state is going to allow a small group of Hawaiians to win. Get moving and do what is necessary to get this project approved. And let this be a lesson to this state. DON’T CUT CORNERS.
Only good from this shows that it is not just due to Hawaii being a primarily democratic state since sweet Linda blew it on the Super ferry. Lets not blow it on this telescope!
The state has no leadership.
Really, Boots. Here’s the answer. “We can’t find one blah blah blah” Translation: Lets stall long enough so that TMT will leave on its own and the UH and IgeLOLO can say Aw what a shame, but it wasn’t our fault.
PS: And for those fools who say this was some sort of fast track under the table deal, lets review the fact the TMT was asked to do 100 things over 7 years and completed them all! Then they said imaginary religious reps were the only the thing that mattered.
It is unlikely that any of the 22 industrial buildings and observatories on Mauna Kea summit will ever be removed. And if TMT were to be constructed it would remain on the summit along with all the rest. There have been no removals since the first building placed up there in 1968, for the simple reason of the environmental damage it would generate in dismantling and hauling down the long road to Hilo.
It’s a matter of perspective, for some a matter of destroying the earth environment.
Pattyjane, have ya been to O’ahu? If you live Oahu then your comment has no creditability. Cuz this island is the poster child for destroying the earth environment.
Have we become a State that does nothing right? Let the facts speak for themselves.
Another sign of weak leadership in our government.
The blame game? What about the County of Hawaii leadership?; Big Island elected officials? Businesses on the Big Island?; construction industry unions / workers? The DOE? UH Hilo? They all have a huge stake in the project.
No, can’t depend on the elected officials of the big island to go against their own people. The mayor is already a convicted felon and no one got the b…. to do anything that would ruin their political career. Yeah, you’re absolutely right about how the officials on the big island should be executing their sworn duties as County officials representing their island and state. Bunch of useless and timid elected and appointed officials on the big island. Not a comment from anyone of them whether good or bad. Lol..get a person like Trump in there and get the TMT rolling again.
One word describes the so called leaders of this state. INCOMPETENCE !
Every day you read about it in this paper, its Rail, the Roads, Traffic, Homeless, uncontrolled development for RICH foreign investors. This place is in serious trouble.
The SA has thought that TMT is “bluffing”? What kind of BS is that?
To me the TMT is very important for all the reasons listed. Government screwed up the first time so government must do it correctly the second time. Get your ducks in a row and let’s get the TMT built NOW.
TMT will not be built on Mauna Kea. The builders know this and will build it elsewhere, probably in Chile. They have no choice as the components of the telescope are
well into being constructed in Japan and elsewhere and they can see that our illustrious governor is not in support and is allowing his underlings to drag things out.
Only a fool would not come to this realization. The astronomers and other scientists who are now based on Hawaii island will all be leaving within a relatively short time and
all the telescopes now on Mauna Kea will eventually be removed as they become obsolete.
Oh well, same old, same old.
As Grace Slick said: “Either go away or go all the way”.