Hawaii’s energy goals are useless distraction

Gov. David Ige has forcefully expressed his commitment to ridding Hawaii of electric power generation from fossil fuels in order to contribute to the effort to reduce global warming.

Let’s face reality. Hawaii’s population is too small to make a significant difference in global warming no matter how hard we try.

Focusing our efforts on global warming distracts attention from problems we can actually solve.

Foremost of these is homelessness, which is a direct result of an acute housing shortage. State and local government should be going all out to stimulate construction of low-rent housing through subsidies and easing restrictions on residential building.

The other major problem awaiting action is public education. Public school teachers are woefully underpaid, which results in constant turnover and ineffective instruction. Public school facilities are in many cases very old and poorly maintained. This is also true at the University of Hawaii.

These problems — unlike global warming — can be solved if our legislators provide the funds.

Carl H. Zimmerman
Salt Lake

City agrees with vision for Kapalama Canal

Peter McClaran correctly suggested that Kapalama Canal could be lovely, with a "walking promenade along the canal with shade trees, benches, exercise stations and a restroom" ("Kapalama Canal could be lovely," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Aug. 25).

That is the community’s vision, which is incorporated into the Kalihi Neighborhood Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Plan, currently before City Council.

Over the next year, we will be working with neighborhood residents, businesses and landowners to refine that vision and design specific improvements to create a community park and gathering place along the canal, connecting to the rail station at Honolulu Community College.

These long-term improvements will be implemented over several years, along with adjacent private redevelopment that will provide a range of affordable and workforce housing. In the meantime, the city and partners are working hard to create additional shelter spaces and housing opportunities to meet the immediate needs of families and individuals camped along the canal.

Harrison Rue
Community building and TOD administrator
City and County of Honolulu

Big money does not always win elections

The importance of bundlers and the obscene amount of money being raised for the 2016 elections are a horrible reflection on our political system.

The primary beneficiaries of this money are political consultants and television advertising. However, a couple of things happened in the 2014 elections in Hawaii that make me hope that, perhaps, we are different from the rest of the country:

>> An incumbent governor spent $8 million in an attempt to defeat a state senator in a primary challenge. The challenger spent $500,000 and won by a significant margin.

>> The people who supported the anti-GMO initiative on Maui spent around $50,000, while the opponents spent many millions of dollars trying to defeat it. And yet, the initiative passed.

Maybe it is harder to buy elections in Hawaii. We should keep that in mind in 2016 and 2018.

Linda Estes
Koloa

Water infrastructure should be a priority

There is no one to blame for this latest mishap involving brown water from storm runoff and a sewage spill ("What a mess," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 25).

Everyone in power now didn’t build this inadequate infrastructure. And those who did build it couldn’t have envisioned a beautiful island covered with concrete and huge 25-story buildings.

It is a wake-up call, a chance to step back and take a hard look at all this development and whether Oahu can sustain it.

Every week brings water main breaks; many of them harm nearby properties. How can we maintain healthy beaches with an outfall sewage system and one that can’t handle a storm that wasn’t even a hurricane?

We should invest in our water infrastructure. There is nothing more important than clean water. The tourists who propel our economy want clean beaches and the smell of tropical foliage, not sewage.

Judith Pettibone
Makiki

Hawaiian chiefs were absolute sovereigns

Sovereign rights of the people are recognized in the Hawaii state Constitution and the United States Constitution — not under any Native Hawaiian rule of governance.

The chiefs or moi of old, as late as during the time of Kamehameha I, claimed and exercised absolute sovereign power.

Queen Liliuokalani lost her throne precisely because she got deluded into thinking that she retained absolute sovereign power — i.e., the power to promulgate a constitution in violation of the provisions of the existing constitution that she had sworn to uphold.

Antonio V. Ramil
Wailuku, Maui

FROM THE FORUM

Readers of the Star-Advertiser’s online edition can respond to stories posted there. The following are some of those. Instead of names, pseudonyms are generally used online. They have been removed.

"To speed response time, HPD touts new Smart911" Star-Advertiser, Aug. 24:

>> Honolulu needs a 311 system for non-emergency calls to take the pressure off its 911 system. Many times people call 911 because they simply have no idea who else to call, even though their issue, while possibly urgent, doesn’t constitute a true emergency.

>> Some random hacker in Russia will know your home address and that you have asthma.

——

"City Council panel votes to safeguard blood bank’s land"

Star-Advertiser, Aug. 24:

>> I am a loud detractor of rail and never wanted this project to go forward. However, since the city is intent on shoving the rail onto all of us, the rail must have the authority to condemn land along the route. If the City Council doesn’t want that to happen, then kill the rail.

>> This looks like a play to finance a new Blood Bank home in a different part of town, paid for by the HART tax.

>> End the rail at Aloha Stadium; problem solved.

——

"Ige blasts LNG as hurdle to clean energy in isles" Star-Advertiser, Aug. 25:

>> So, now the governor is an economic expert on capital expenditures and return on investment in the power generation industry? Amazing. If the companies involved are willing to make the investment of their own capital to lower the cost of producing electricity and do it using cleaner fuel, then let them. Renewable sources are a nice idea but they take time to implement and are not as cos-effective as LNG — and we need all the help we can get, as soon as possible, in lowering our cost of power.

>> Nextera and HECO are in the business to make money. HECO does not have the interest of its users as its first priority. It has a monopoly. It needs to be regulated. The price of oil has dropped from over $120 a barrel to $39. Has your electric bill come down dramatically? Why would you pay to switch to LNG when oil is in oversupply? They want to make up reasons to keep our electric bills high. LNG prices have remained stable or gone up recently. We are in a market-driven world economy.

——

"Punishing heat and humidity forecast to remain" Star-Advertiser, Aug. 25:

>> These storms are like coming out of a factory. One after the other. I guess our drought situation in most areas will be taken care of.

>> It’s 8:30 a.m. and already getting stifling hot.

>> And now we wait for Ignacio. … We need to be prepared.

——

"Murky waters following sewage spill" Star-Advertiser, Aug. 26:

>> A "breakdown in communication." Wow, that sounds like the government at work. There should be several independent checks going on every day to keep people on their toes. Also, there are ways to treat the sewage immediately to destroy pathogens in case some natural disaster releases them. People should be held accountable for their mistakes.

>> I think whoever was responsible was more negligent and ambivalent than stupid. Whatever the case, rest assured no one will be fired, regardless of all the negative worldwide publicity this incident has generated.

——

"How will the Warriors do? My game-by-game says 6-7" Star-Advertiser, Aug. 26:

>> 6-7 is optimistic. But what better time to be optimistic than before the season begins.

>> We need someone with rose-colored glasses. 7-6 season and we beat Colorado. Maybe even 8-5.

>> Go Rainbow Warriors!

——

"Halt to rail sought in wake of lawmakers’ ethics issues" Star-Advertiser, Aug. 27:

>> We need to stay the course and finish the rail project and not get bogged down on technicalities.

>> "Technicalities" like bribed and corrupted City Council members who "forgot" to mention that they were accepting "gifts"? Those sort of "technicalities"?

>> Anyone can file a lawsuit. Abigail Kawananakoa does not have the authority to "demand" anything. She is not the queen.

>> Sorry, she does have the authority to demand good government — just like everyone else does. However, she has the means to do it, while many others do not.

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