The ruling today was handed down by Maui Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza, the Hawaii Superferry can’t run while the state prepares an environmental assessment of the boat. Thats an assessment that could take months to complete.
Does this mean the Superferry will leave? Well, according to the CEO the company is losing $650,000 a week with the boat sitting in the harbor. If it can’t sail, they’ll have to look elsewhere until it can, with no guarantee that it will come back.
Judge Cardoza said that the state’s environmental law clearly states an environmental assessment must be done before a project can proceed.
The state legislature has already said they will have to have a special session to see if they need to overrule the judge. In an already divided public opinion, this is likely to add more fuel to the fire. It’s a tough decision to make. The recent poll that said the majority of public opinion favors the ferry is very interesting. We’ll see what people have to say after this ruling.
My guess is the people who opposed the Hawaii Superferry will love the ruling, and those that favored the ferry won’t fight as hard to bring it back as those that fought to keep it away. It’ll be tough to bring it back if it leaves. But then again I don’t know all the ins and outs of the rulings and the business side. So I’ll leave that to politicians to figure out.
Tags: Hawaii Superferry
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