IAM Launches International Petition to Stop Undersea Cable
I Aloha Molokai News Release
I Aloha Molokai (IAM) has launched a worldwide petition to stop Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s multi-billion-dollar Big Wind Interisland Cable boondoggle. Gov. Abercrombie, Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) and some House and Senate members are now finalizing legislation that would allow the project to fast-track without sufficient environmental analysis or public review.
Noting the project’s huge potential impacts on whales and “critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals – one of the rarest marine mammals in the world – as well as five species of sea turtles, three species of dolphins, and hundreds of other marine species,” the petition adds that the project “will be rubber-stamped without due process – without public input from residents of Hawaii and, not to mention, everyone worldwide who wants to protect whales, sea turtles, seals, and dolphins.”
The cable would be drilled and dynamited through the Hawaiian Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, the Penguin Banks, and world famous Molokai reef, the largest and most pristine coral reef north of Australia. It would be tied to huge industrial wind projects covering nearly 40 square miles of Lanai and Molokai, destroying the islands’ tourism income, natural beauty, environment, property values, bird and bats, and cultural and social life.
The project would significantly raise Hawaii’s electricity rates and severely impact tourism statewide. Yet the power it might produce could be easily generated by residential rooftop solar on Oahu at a fraction of the cost.
Molokai has just been rated America’s most beautiful undiscovered island and one of the world’s ten most beautiful. Lanai’s Garden of the Gods and other internationally known geologic treasures would be destroyed by the project. Because the tourism value, beauty, and natural resources of the Whale Sanctuary, Molokai reef, and the islands of Molokai and Lanai are of international significance and concern, IAM has opened the petition not only to Hawaii residents but also to signers from all over the world.
IAM invites all voters and residents of Hawaii to visit IAlohaMolokai.com and click on “sign now,” to protect Hawaii’s whales, porpoises, seals, turtles and other magnificent sea life, the National Whale Sanctuary, the Penguin Banks, Molokai Reef and the beautiful irreplaceable islands of Lanai and Molokai.
3 Comments
I was blessed to have spent 10 of the most amazing days of my life on Molokai a few years ago. I learned so much during my time spent on Molokai that the experience truly changed me and continues to each day. You have a community like no other. My time there perfectly reflects the simple saying of the bumper sticker “Don’t change Molokai, let Molokai change you” and it certainly did for the better. The spirit of Molokai lives in my soul and I will forward this petition to everyone I know.
Sometimes, it takes a new pair of eyes to tell us about our island and why we are. Especially after months of dust storms that continue to kick up the angry haze in our faces, smothering our smiles and turning our laughter into mournful cries. The spirit gets weary, not from the physical battles, that we are well seasoned to handle, but the emotional grief that comes when people continue to spit in your face and say it is justified. The assault on Molokai continues, our political leaders continue to mock us, but our island continues to nurture her sons and holds them close to her heart.
Aloha to all the readers as well as the people of molokai, i am kealii makekau a candidate for the OHA Trustee at Large seat for 2012. I have read and heard about this topic from some of you most recently from Mr. Kanohowailuku Helm who is running for a seat in the Senate. Until there is major support for this endeavor i would like to proclaim my opposition to the wind-farm and sea cable project until such time as the Molokai people themselves can research and investigate all the facts. As in any democracy the people have the power and give their consent to the elected officials to carry out there wishes, if elected to OHA i would do just that. This is my official position on this matter so please hold me to it and remember it when voting for the Trustee at large position. Mahalo and Imua Molokai….