Posted on: Tuesday, December 7, 2004

Letters to the Editor

Untimely deaths are preventable — by us

As I read your Nov. 16 article "DUI arrests near 3,000" I was reminded of the painful and tragic loss that my family sustained because of the idiotic recklessness of a drunken driver.

In January of 2003, my hanai sister — a cousin — was the first alcohol-related traffic fatality of the year. It was the week of her 25th birthday.

A single mother, she left us with two children, a girl, 8, and a boy, 4.

Her death has brutally changed my family. Not only do we miss her during birthdays and holidays, we miss her every day!

Her children are now in the care of my mother. A dilemma? Not for Mom. The children are loved and cherished, and unhesitatingly accepted as her own. Mom is 56.

The reason I'm writing this letter is to inform your readers that absolutely no one would want to suffer an untimely loss of a loved one. My family, many families, live with the heartache daily.

My plea is for everyone to take responsibility to make our roads safer. And not just for the holidays, but every day!

If you do celebrate with alcohol, please, I beg of you: Don't drink and drive.

Taking a beating from refuse overload

Waimanalo Gulch! As a lifelong resident of the Wai'anae Coast, I am once again amazed and appalled at the sheer audacity and arrogance of some members of the City Council.

But should I be, or should anyone else for that matter? Seems like business as usual as far as the Leeward Coast is concerned. Did the testimony that was given (clearly with the majority against expansion and against another landfill on the Leeward Coast) fall on deaf, uncaring ears?

You cannot tell me that there are no other viable options besides expansion. Did any council member who voted in the majority ever make it out to Wai'anae to witness the impact of having hundreds of fully loaded refuse trucks drive through your neighborhood to deposit their loads, then turn around and start the process over again, and again and again? There are already three landfills in our area, and we are taking a beating!

Kudos to councilmembers Gabbard, Djou and Garcia for having the backbone to vote no! They are the only ones who heard the voices of Wai'anae and acted with our best interests in mind. Mayor Hannemann and Councilman Apo, do not let this travesty continue. Enough is enough!

Who will hold council accountable?

The decision to leave the city dump in Waimanalo Gulch is wrong for at least three reasons:

• By breaking their promise to close the dump, the mayor's office and the City Council have lost much credibility and trust among both winners and losers.

• By expanding the dump the City Council has ravaged the plans to turn Kapolei into the "Second City" of O'ahu.

• By allowing four landfills on the Leeward Coast the City Council has shown race-based bias against the most vulnerable minority in Hawai'i, contrary to all federal and state guidelines.

Who will hold the Honolulu City Council accountable for its wrong decisions?

Most criteria favored UH to host tourney

UH associate athletics director Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano said "one of the criteria" the NCAA selection committee considered were the flights.

In my opinion it was the only thing they considered. Everything else would favor Hawai'i.

1. If they considered fairness, the four top seeds would get regionals.

2. If they considered revenue, UH is the only profit-making program.

3. If they considered filling the stands, like UH could do.

4. If they considered win-loss record, the Wahine are 30-0.

5. If they considered safety, what safer place to play volleyball than Hawai'i?

Give Wahine a clue

Now that the NCAA Women's Volleyball Committee has changed its guidelines again, the Rainbow Wahine will never host another regional ... ever.

If a No. 1 ranking and 28-0 are not good enough, what could it possibly be? Please, NCAA, let the Wahine know before the season starts so they can go out and do it.

Why does NCAA take it out on UH?

This message is being sent to the NCAA and The Honolulu Advertiser, not to moan and groan, but to highlight actions that seem to only happen to the University of Hawai'i. When was the last time any of these things happened to UCLA, USC, Nebraska or Penn State? The answer, never!

Which NCAA school had the most attendance for women's volleyball? Hawai'i.

Which school, through hard work and team play, rose from No. 13 in the polls at the beginning of the year to No. 1 a week before the NCAA tournament was to begin? Hawai'i.

Which team, because it is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is required to travel nearly 5,000 miles, if it reaches the final four? Hawai'i.

Who is the only No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament to not host rounds one and two in front of the greatest volleyball fans in the world? Hawai'i.

You may be asking what my point is. Well, it doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure it out.

The only team, students, athletes, coaches and fans who are expendable, by your actions, are those from Hawai'i. This is the message being sent by your pairings. Shame on you!

I hope you gave our girls the drive to prove you wrong and to show the nation Hawai'i is not only the better team, but they have integrity and honor, something the NCAA sorely lacks.

Who says Christians must be tolerant?

In his Dec. 1 column on moral values cutting both ways, David Shapiro at the end says we should have more tolerance.

Biblical Christians are very wary of that word for it usually means that we will have to compromise biblical Christianity to the world around us.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say anything about tolerance, meaning that biblical Christianity must be compromised. We do not intend to do so now or in the future.

If that makes us sound like hard-liners, then so be it.

Recognizing need for free expression

Thanks to Hawai'i Supreme Court Justice Simeon Acoba for his dissenting opinion (Aug. 11) upholding the expressional rights of leafletting and sign-holding at shopping centers like Ala Moana Center, for which I was arrested and later convicted.

I was protesting the sale of war toys to children as young as 5 on Dec. 13, 2000.

And to Dwight Yoshimura of the center's management for lifting the one-year ban — within two months of its imposition — on my return to the center in response to my appeal as the driver for my husband.

Foster and adoptive parents are needed

Watching news coverage of adopt-a-soldier programs has made me think about the families in Hawai'i who have opened their hearts and homes to our littlest troopers here in the Islands.

To the foster and adoptive parents who care for Hawai'i's children whose families are in transition, or open their doors permanently to them, we say thank -you. Your contribution does not go unnoticed.

While you're thinking about your family this holiday season, please remember those children who are separated from theirs. If you are able to provide a stable and nurturing home for Hawai'i's children, please call Hawai'i Behavioral Health on O'ahu at 454-2570 for information on how to become a state-licensed foster or adoptive parent.

State, city unable to care for properties

As a resident in the Moanalua Gardens subdivision, a frequent visitor to Moanalua Gardens and a sometimes hiker in the valley, I truly hope that neither the City and County of Honolulu nor the State of Hawai'i acquires these properties.

The governmental bodies are unable to properly care for what they already have, let alone additional areas.

Please let a responsible entity obtain the beautiful Damon estate properties.

'Double-dip' tax credit for ethanol? Fear is overdrawn

While Sean Hao's Nov. 14 article "Ethanol tax credits a bonanza for some" was well researched, its claim that some ethanol producers will receive $2 in tax credits for every $1 privately invested is overly ambitious and based on an extreme scenario.

A far more reasonable and practical approach is a $1 tax credit for every $1 invested. This is exactly what leaders in the state Legislature such as Rep. Hermina Morita intended when creating this credit. This is exactly what will happen.

The ethanol investment tax credit is an incentive aimed at lowering the cost of producing ethanol in Hawai'i and spurring the growth of a new industry in our state that will also stimulate Hawai'i's agricultural economy. Ethanol production facilities will only qualify for the tax credit when producing at least 75 percent of capacity, with the tax credit paid out over eight years.

In addition, the ethanol investment tax credit only covers a portion of the capital costs related to building the plant. Operating costs, laboratory-testing equipment, computer systems, administrative supplies and other items are not eligible.

Theoretically, an ethanol production facility could qualify for a second tax credit, the High Technology Investment Tax Credit (Act 215, formerly known as Act 221), but only by stretching an existing situation to untenable lengths — the facility would have to be funded entirely by cash, which is highly impractical.

The article was correct that cutting-edge ethanol research is being funded with Act 215 credits. Some of these investigations, if realized, could revolutionize the global ethanol industry. With Hawai'i's year-round growing climate and access to the best of East and West, there is no better place to test these experimental models. In some ways the article missed a golden opportunity to showcase the innovations that Hawai'i's emerging ethanol industry is striving for.

Unfortunately, the article also failed to note a crucial distinction between tax credits i Act 215 credits are focused on high-tech, high-risk projects such as ethanol research. Ethanol investment tax credits attract low-risk investment for ethanol production facilities. These separate and distinct tax credits go toward two separate and distinct purposes. Additionally, the law is written to ensure that no single taxpayer can qualify for both tax credits.

In any practical scenario, there would never be $2 in tax credits for $1 invested.

Study after study shows that ethanol is a net positive for the economy — it will bring money into Hawai'i far in excess of any cost from tax credits. Ethanol's time has come.

Weaning state of overdependence

Jan TenBruggencate's thoughtful article on Nov. 26 regarding Hawai'i's need to support alternative energy resources deserves amplification.

At the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), we strongly believe weaning the state off its overdependence on imported oil is crucial to our state, its residents and our economy. For too long we have relied on laws that encourage, but do not provide the necessary teeth, to get the job done effectively.

The Lingle-Aiona administration will continue to work diligently to increase both energy efficiency investments and all reasonable renewable energy technologies in Hawai'i. Our future is too important to do anything less.

Under Gov. Lingle, we have consistently supported progressive policies to increase the use of renewable energy in Hawai'i for a wide variety of technologies, including solar photovoltaics. These policies include not only tax policy, but encouraging additional investment by attracting federal funding to introduce new technologies, reducing barriers by creating demand within the market, and encouraging the formation of strategic partnerships, all in an effort to stimulate increased use of higher-cost renewable energy systems within a relatively small market in Hawai'i.

For example, DBEDT diligently worked with the Legislature to approve a new law, signed as Act 95 by the governor, which requires Hawai'i's electric utilities to obtain at least 20 percent of their energy renewable sources by the year 2020. The Public Utilities Commission is now taking steps to implement that law. Requiring the electric utilities to acquire a minimum amount of renewable energy will make it much easier for these systems to be accepted and installed in Hawai'i.

We recently enacted rules that now require ethanol, a renewable liquid fuel, to be blended in Hawai'i's gasoline supply by substituting this biofuel for 10 percent of our gasoline by April, 2006.

We supported the extension of Hawai'i's tax credits that encourage residents and business owners to invest in renewable energy systems. In considering the extension of these tax credits, the state facilitated a public-private energy policy working group that recommended the current level of tax credits and maximum ceilings for both residential and commercial systems to the Legislature.

Representatives of the solar industry were part of the working group that considered the amount of maximum credits for solar photovoltaic systems, while recognizing the need to manage impacts on the state treasury. Notably, a maximum cap on tax credits for commercial systems was absent from the previous law and was a subject of some concern.

We believe this coordinated, multipronged approach to supporting alternative energy with concrete goals and sanctions is exactly what it will take to move Hawai'i toward greater energy self-sufficiency.