Act 2 Loose Ends...EIS needs to be redone

I see the spinmeisters are trying to put the word out that the EIS could be completed in "2 to 3 months." Actually, that is an Act 2 pseudo-EIS (which no longer has any legal foundation) with limited focus and no more public involvement from here on out. On a Chapter 343 EIS the public has continued involvement even on the final draft and that can be challenged. Also, a real Chapter 343 EIS on this should not be prepared by the DOT. That is a conflict of interest.

Also, Lingle says when they started drafting Act 2 they were doing the legally correct thing. Wrong. Lingle says there are a lot of small businesses dependent upon HSF, then she should list them. There are only a handful of businesses, most are not small, and they have options and are not totally dependent upon HSF. Lingle also says HSF is lower cost than it's competitors. Wrong. The airlines are now lower cost than HSF and Young Brothers is lower cost than HSF at moving cargo. So that is wrong, wrong, and wrong on Lingle's points. One of the other people in an e-mail group on this says Lingle is in a "state of denial."

One last thing. I was misquoted in the following:

Brad Parsons, a Superferry critic who splits his time between Maui and Kaua'i, said the ruling gives him "a sense of great relief and inspiration, that the Supreme Court justices did the right thing, with good reason and well-thought-out logic. ... It's like a big weight off my shoulders that there is somebody at the state that did the right thing, finally."

The quote is correct until that last sentence. I never said that last sentence. I would not view it as a weight on my shoulders only, and in addition to the State Supreme Court Justices there were a few people in the Legislature who did try to do the right thing.

Aloha, Brad

P.S. In reply to Tim Dick's comments on his Use Half blog, questioning my carbon use, I last visited Maui for a couple of days in Sept. 2008, to attend the OTF committee hearing, prior to that I was last on Maui in May 2008. I haven't been back to Maui since. Personally, I view casual interisland travel as a waste of resources and money. Rather than "using half," I have cut that back to almost nothing, something that much of HSF's expected market appears to have also done in the past 6 months or more.