TMT Contested Case Decision

I have to admit I was worried that the decision could go against the TMT project.

It did not.

Retired Judge Riki May Amano
Retired Judge Riki May Amano presides over the TMT contested case hearing
Earlier today hearing officer Judge Ricky May Amano recommended that the TMT project be granted a Conservation District Use Permit or CDUP.

The decision is nearly three hundred pages long, none of us has had a chance to do more than skim some of the more interesting sections. Indeed most of us opened the document and skipped straight to page 260 to read the Recommended Decision and Order first.

TMT Rendering
An overhead view of the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope, credit TMT Observatory Corporation
What I have read appears to be a straightforward reading of the law involving land use. Yes, it is a conservation district, that means that there shall be sufficient management of the project, but does not mean that the project cannot proceed.

We have yet to see the outrage from TMT project opponents. I expect it will be shortly forthcoming and quite vehement.

Where do we go from here? As I understand it the next step is for the DLNR board to vote on the acceptance of the hearing officer’s recommendation and reissue the permit. Of course the next thing to happen after that is the inevitable court challenge. This will go straight to the state supreme court as recent legislation set that as the path for land use cases, skipping the lower courts.

Author: Andrew

An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.

2 thoughts on “TMT Contested Case Decision”

  1. I believe there is, potentially, another contested case hearing to come which I think is currently under appeal as to whether it will happen or not. I haven’t got a link right now but will find one if you want.

    Reply

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