Lawmakers choose innovation over red tape

by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D., President / CEO, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

What if we had another way to travel interisland? Something cheaper and more environmentally friendly than the usual airport-to-airport grind?

No, I’m not talking about resurrecting the Hawaii Superferry. There’s a new option on the horizon, and I’m excited to tell you that my colleagues at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii played a small role in smoothing its path to success.

I’m talking about wing-in-ground craft, more commonly known as seagliders. If you haven’t seen a video of one in action, I urge you to look it up. They look like a futuristic version of the seaplanes that used to serve Hawaii from the mainland and Asia many decades ago.

However, they don’t operate exactly like the seaplanes of old, which used the ocean surface for landing and takeoff but flew high in the sky to their destinations. Instead, they float on the water like a boat, then rise up to glide on an underwater hydrofoil before taking off to fly just above the water’s surface.

Capable of carrying up to 12 passengers at a time, seagliders are being investigated as a possible mode of interisland transportation. Initial tests suggest they could withstand wave and wind conditions in Hawaii sufficient to operate 90% of the time, and a recent study claims they could carry at least 300,000 interisland travelers every month.

The catch, however, is that bureaucratic questions need to be answered, such as which government body should be responsible for governing a passenger vessel that is neither a plane nor a boat.

During Hawaii’s recent legislative session, my Grassroot colleagues testified in support of a bill that would exempt seagliders from the Hawaii Water Carrier Act, which tasked the Public Utilities Commission with regulating the transportation of passengers and cargo by water.

As SB2400 smartly remarks, subjecting seaglider operators to PUC rules “would impose undue oversight and increase costs without improving public safety or consumer protection.” In other words, state lawmakers acknowledge that PUC regulations could doom the budding enterprise before it gets off the ground — or in this case, the water.

The bill also notes that safety is not a concern, because the U.S. Coast Guard already oversees that for wing-in-ground craft. Even PUC officials testified in favor of the bill, acknowledging that existing federal regulations on seagliders should be sufficient.

Fortunately, the Hawaiʻi Legislature passed SB2400, so all the bill needs now is a green light from the governor.

We can’t predict whether seagliders will take off as an efficient and economical way to travel interisland, but it is nice to know that efforts are being made to ensure the potential growth of a new industry will not be held back by unnecessary regulations.

Kudos to our lawmakers for not squandering this opportunity to let an innovative idea take flight.

E hana kākou! (Lets work together!)