Hawaiʻi Supreme Court invalidates current TMT permit

Mauna Kea
Written By Will Caron

On December 2, 2015, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court voted unanimously to vacate the permit that authorizes construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) atop Mauna Kea.

The court ruled that the Hawaiʻi State Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) wrongfully approved a conservation use permit in 2011 before holding a contested case hearing. This violated the constitutional rights of the petitioners requesting the hearing. Contested case hearings are an important and constitutionally-mandated (when requested) part of the land development process in Hawaiʻi.

TMT project officials will now have to return to the BLNR to get new approval for the project. 

Read the concurring opinion written by justices Pollack, Wilson and McKenna here.

Will Caron

Award-winning illustrator, painter, cartoonist, photographer, editor & writer; former editor-in-chief of Summit magazine, The Hawaii Independent, INhonolulu & Ka Leo O Hawaiʻi. Current communications director for Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center.

https://www.willcaronhawaii.com/
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