County lawmakers like being green

The Maui News
Monday, August 16, 2004

By MELISSA TANJI, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - Two Maui legislators scored in the 90th percentile of the Sierra Club Hawaii's "Environmental Scorecard" for Hawaii's lawmakers.

In results released last month, the Sierra Club, Hawai'i Chapter, ranked legislators on how they voted on key environmental issues during the 2003-04 session.

Sen. J. Kalani English and Rep. Sol Kaho'ohalahala both scored 92 percent on their respective scorecards and received the top scores among lawmakers representing Maui County.

The two also sit on committees dealing with environmental issues at the Legislature.

English, a Democrat representing East Maui, Molokai and Lanai, is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee and is also a member of the Water, Land and Agriculture Committee. Kaho'ohalahala, D-East Maui-Lanai-Molokai, is vice chairman of the House Water, Land Use and Hawaiian Affairs Committee and is a member of the Energy and Environmental Protection Committee.

"I'm very grateful for the high marks. I have a personal belief in the balance of environmental needs with the community interaction," English said.

Kaho'ohalahala said: "I'm happy for the scorecard. It's not something you try to think about, how one will be ranked. That's where my strength and my contributions are."

Kaho'ohalahala said environmental issues are directly related to the islands' ability to be sustainable.

"Our economy is really based on our environment," he said. "We need to be mindful we are an island state, our resources are finite."

The state will need to make plans on how it will deal with the long term and maintain the resources of the islands, he said.

Two other Maui senators, Rosalyn "Roz" Baker, D-West Maui-South Maui, scored 77 percent, and Shan Tsutsui, D-Wailuku-Kahului-Paia, scored 62 percent.

Oahu Democrat Les Ihara Jr., whose district includes Kaimuki and Kapahulu, was the only legislator with a perfect rating.

On the opposite end of the scale, two Oahu Republicans - Sens. Fred Hemmings and Sam Slom - were rated at 15 percent.

English tied with two other senators who received the 92 percent score.

Baker said she was pleased that the scorecard indicated she's a supporter of the environment.

"I've always felt like I supported environmental issues," she said.

But she wondered why her score differed so much from English when she had basically the same voting record on energy and environmental bills.

In comments on the scorecard, the Sierra Club said English introduced and advocated for "many green measures" but said Baker took "no distinguishing actions."

Tsutsui received the same comment, but he ranked lower at 62 percent.

"I think that protecting our environment is one of the most important things we can do for our state and our future generations," he said.

But while the environment is important, he said, "balance is important when making decisions at the Legislature."

He said having more than a 50 percent rating is good and he wasn't "too concerned" with his 62 percent rating.

In the House, Kaho'ohalahala is followed by state Reps. Kika Bukoski, R-Upcountry, at 75 percent; Chris Halford, R-South Maui, at 69 percent and Bob Nakasone, D-Wailuku-Paia, at 57 percent. Both Reps. Brian Blundell, R-West Maui, and Joseph "Joe" Souki, D-Wailuku-Waikapu, were rated at 50 percent.

The top House scores at 93 percent were given to Big Island Democrat Cindy Evans and Oahu Democrats Marilyn Lee, Blake Oshiro and Tommy Waters.

The lowest rating among all legislators went to a Windward Oahu Republican, Rep. Colleen Meyer, at 7 percent.

Although he earned one of the lowest scores among the Maui County lawmakers, Souki said: "I believe I'm fair to both business and the environment."

In its rating system, the Sierra Club gave each legislator a plus or minus for votes on specific bills, with positive marks also given for "other actions" that they may have taken for the environment.

Souki received a minus for his vote against the bottle bill fix.

"I'm opposed to the bottle bill," he said. "It's basically a tax increase."

In addition to the higher cost for products in bottles, he said the bill would create a storage problem. But Souki said that maybe in time he will be proven wrong about the concept.

"I'm a bit disappointed I wasn't higher than that," Blundell said. "I do look at environmentally friendly legislation favorably. I really would like to be higher than that (50 percent)."

Blundell received a minus for his vote against a bill that would prohibit coastal lights from shining directly onto the ocean.

He called it "an awful bill" that would have the lights shut down on Front Street.

Bukoski, who formerly was with a waste disposal company and is currently a partner in a wind turbine project, said his 75 percent score was "a fair mark."

"I've been a huge advocate for environmental issues," he said, citing his efforts to prevent a demonstration project to inject excess carbon dioxide into the ocean.

Bukoski noted he has a background in recycling and dealing with waste. He is also involved in proposal to construct a wind turbine to generate electricity for Maui Community College.

Halford criticized the mode by which the scores were derived. And he wasn't alone.

Critical legislators questioned the bills used to determine the scores, and some said the Sierra Club fails to realize that the political process is a "balance" of different issues.

"The scorecard they provided is a selective list of just a few bills, many of which did not even pass the Legislature," Halford said.

He said the Sierra Club missed "two extremely significant issues," which were the grading of the budget and the emergency environmental work force bill. Halford said the state spends less than 1 percent of the budget on the environment.

"I voted no on the budget partly for that reason," he said.

Halford, a Republican, said he wasn't pleased that the legislative leadership, which is Democratic, wasn't given a minus for failing to override the veto on the work force bill that would have crews pulling invasive miconia and helping solve the coqui frog problem.

He said the work force bill passed unanimously in the Legislature.

Even English, who received top scores, criticized the Sierra Club scoring. He said he wished the Sierra Club "would be more accurate" in its reporting and researching its information.

The scorecard said that English "introduced and advocated for many green measures, but as Energy and Environmental Chair, deleted the citizen suit provisions in the endangered species act bill and failed to forward a number of environmental measures form this committee."

English said he introduced all of the bills the club criticized him for deleting. If the bills were not moved out of committee, it was for good reason, he said.

"They need to also understand in the political process, a lot of it is trying to find a balance," he said.

"These things kind of have to be taken with a grain of salt," Tsutsui said. "People kind of need to do their homework to make sure these are valid."

The Sierra Club's 2003-04 Legislative Scorecard is online at www.hi.sierraclub.org/scorecards/.

Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

Copyright © 2003 — The Maui News

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