VIDEO: Common Sense from Molokai

News Release from I Aloha Molokai April 30, 2012

I Aloha Molokai (IAM) has launched a worldwide Petition to stop Governor Neil Abercrombie’s multi-billion-dollar Big Wind Interisland Cable boondoggle. Governor Abercrombie, 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 landscapes which would be destroyed by the project are internationally known geologic treasures. 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 www.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.

Mahalo to All,

I Aloha Molokai.com

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Please see the copy of the Petition below:

Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie and Hawaii Legislators: Stop High Voltage Electrical Cable Construction in Whale Sanctuary

Tell Hawaii’s Governor: Stop High Voltage Undersea Electrical Cable Construction from Destroying the Habitat of Humpback Whales and Endangered Monk Seals.

Humpback whales and the federally-endangered Hawaiian monk seals are being threatened by a proposed multi-billion dollar interisland undersea electric cable that would be blasted through the Hawaiian Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary with“fast-tracked” environmental and public review.

Thousands of North Pacific humpback whales travel each year to the Sanctuary to mate, give birth, and nurse their young. The Humpback Whale is the fifth largest whale in the world and the fourth most endangered. Also protected in the Sanctuary are the 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 cable would also be dynamited through the world-famous Molokai Reef, the largest and most pristine coral reef north of Australia. Coral reefs occur in only 2% of the world’s oceans and have a diversity of life that is second only to that of a tropical rain forest.

In the center of the Sanctuary are the islands of Molokai and Lanai, and the Molokai Reef separates these two rural Hawaiian island paradises. These waters are socially, economically and culturally important to the residents. The Governor already knows that on Molokai over 97% of people polled oppose the cable. Hundreds of Hawaii’s residents from all the islands and one neighborhood board which represents 6,000 households on O’ahu have written the Governor and Legislators to voice their opposition as well.

If Governor Neil Abercrombie has his way, this project could be built with an exemption from required environmental impact analysis, and severely limited public input. Yet studies have shown that such cables emit electromagnetic fields which disorient marine life and irrevocably impact the ocean environment. It 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, monk seals, and dolphins.

Please join us in urging Governor Abercrombie and Hawaii’s legislators to require strict environmental accountability on this project and to allow Molokai and Lanai to opt out, as the vast majority of the islands’ residents have requested.

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Related: The final vote on the interisland cable bill is scheduled in the Senate for Thursday, the last day of session.