Attorney general defends governor’s proclamations

State Attorney General David Louie said Wednesday that Gov. Neil Abercrombie acted "responsibly and appropriately" in issuing emergency proclamations on unexploded ordnance and Hawaiian nene relocation to protect public health and safety.

Louie, in a letter to the Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter, said Abercrombie has broad emergency powers under the state’s civil defense law and determined that unexploded ordnance across the islands and a nene colony near Lihue Airport on Kauai pose threats of disaster.

Abercrombie used his emergency powers to suspend two dozen state land use and environmental regulations for five years to help the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers remove discarded munitions and the state relocate endangered nene away from the airport.

The Sierra Club chapter and several other environmental and cultural groups have claimed Abercrombie misused his emergency powers by invoking a state law meant to respond to enemy attack and natural and man-made disasters.

"The governor acted responsibly in exercising his powers to address the significant threat to health and safety posed by unexploded munitions and the presence of nene geese near the airport," Louie wrote. "Such threats constituted an emergency that required a response. Given the circumstances and conditions, it was the best, most prudent option at the time."

Robert Harris, director of Sierra Club Hawaii, doesn’t see it the same way.

"We respectfully disagree with the attorney general’s legal analysis, and it may be up to either the courts or the Legislature to resolve," he said.

The state civil defense law is intended to help the governor respond to enemy attack or disasters such as fires, floods, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, massive oil spills, nuclear accidents, airplane crashes and civil disturbances.

Louie said nene geese could collide with aircraft and cause airplane crashes, which are covered in the definition of a disaster, and that unexploded ordnance from World War II era military training is a potential disaster caused by acts of man like oil spills or nuclear accidents.

Louie also cited the portion of the law that empowers the governor, in the event or the threat of an attack, to be the sole judge of the existence of danger.

Harris said the governor’s emergency powers should be reserved for real, not speculative, disasters.

"I just think they’re really stretching things here to justify the governor’s action, and that’s the attorney general’s job to some extent, and we disagree with the analysis," he said.