The state House yesterday gave final approval to a bill to help Hawaii Superferry resume service as several lawmakers asked Gov. Linda Lingle and Superferry executives to join them in trying to heal divisions over the project.

The state House yesterday gave final approval to a bill to help Hawaii Superferry resume service as several lawmakers asked Gov. Linda Lingle and Superferry executives to join them in trying to heal divisions over the project.

The House voted 39-11 in favor of allowing the ferry to resume service under operating conditions to protect whales and deter the spread of invasive species while the state conducts an environmental review. The state Senate passed the bill 20-5 on Monday.

Lingle is expected to sign the bill into law. Superferry executives hope to hire back the 249 workers furloughed last month and restart ferry service by Nov. 15.

The House vote ended an extraordinary six-day special session where lawmakers overturned the courts to help the Superferry. Lawmakers were told by the governor and Superferry executives that if they failed to act, Superferry would be forced by financial pressure to leave the Islands. Environmentalists and many on the Neighbor Islands pleaded with them to follow the courts and first do an environmental review.

Although legal challenges to the bill are possible, for the moment, the future of the Superferry moves from the courts and the Legislature to the marketplace, where consumers could decide whether it will be a success.

OUTREACH PLANNED

John Garibaldi, Superferry's president and chief executive officer, said executives would do community outreach on Maui and Kaua'i to address some of the intense feelings against the project that have surfaced in the two months since the state Supreme Court ruled an environmental review was necessary. A Maui court ruled last month that the ferry could not use Kahului Harbor until the review was completed. Superferry voluntarily chose not to return to Kaua'i after protests.

"I hope they would give us a chance," Garibaldi said of the critics. "I think it's something that if they look to all the work that has been done, the leadership we have done — and they take the time to understand that — that we are very, very caring about the environment.

"That's been a concern about us, but we're a group of individuals who started this company who live here in Hawai'i. So we care as much about the environment, about the way of life, about Hawai'i, as they do. And hopefully, together we can open communications, frank discussions, and come to an understanding that maybe not everyone is happy with but allows us to provide this service."

The Alakai, the state's first high-speed ferry for passengers and vehicles, is planned for service between O'ahu, Maui and Kaua'i. A second ferry now being built is expected to serve the Big Island in 2009.

Lingle, who called the Legislature back into special session to preserve the Superferry as a new transportation option, issued a brief statement yesterday afternoon. The Republican governor and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate had worked closely together in private meetings to reach consensus on a draft that was satisfactory to the majority of lawmakers.

"I'm glad the Legislature worked cooperatively to preserve this important transportation alternative for the people of Hawai'i," the governor said.

In the House floor debate yesterday, like in the Senate on Monday, several lawmakers spoke of the importance of overcoming their individual conflicts about the process or the details of the bill so they can bring people together. The overwhelming votes in both chambers also showed that despite the vocal opposition to the Superferry among some segments of the population, particularly on Neighbor Islands, lawmakers believed a majority of people statewide want the project to survive.

State Rep. Joseph Souki, D-8th (Wailuku, Waihe'e, Waiehu), said as an island state, water and air travel are the only ways to connect people and move goods. He said ferries are common travel options worldwide and asked why Hawai'i should be different.

Souki said the debate over the Superferry was healthy, but he asked people to act with respect and civility going forward. "We are one 'aina, one Hawai'i," he said.

Another telling sign of public opinion was that many Neighbor Island lawmakers, including several freshmen who may be the most vulnerable politically, voted in favor of the bill.

State Rep. Roland Sagum III, D-16th (Ni'ihau, Lehua, Waimea), said he had spoken with many residents and businesses in his district and felt most backed the Superferry. "They really want a large-capacity ferry system in Hawai'i," he said.

MISTRUST CITED

State Rep. Joe Bertram III, D-11th (Makena, Wailea, Kihei), said he believes many people on Maui are upset about new development and mistrust the government planning process. But, he said, people may be putting too much emphasis on an environmental review for the Superferry instead of looking at broader issues, such as sustainability. "I ask for my friends on Maui to please understand why I'm doing this," said Bertram, who voted "yes" and sees the ferry as an alternative mode of transportation.

Five of the 11 "no" votes in the House were from Neighbor Island lawmakers, and some warned that the Legislature was compounding the mistake of the Lingle administration, which had exempted the Superferry project from an environmental review.

State Rep. Hermina Morita, D-14th (Hanalei, Anahola, Kapa'a), said the House was emasculating the courts and the rule of law. She said it was appropriate that the vote was taken on Halloween. The bill, she said, "dressed in the facade of the toothless conditions, is still one ugly bill that reeks the horrors of political favors gone awry and should be haunting this Legislature on how cheap we sold the credibility and respectability of this institution and our moral compass."

Some lawmakers were surprised that state Rep. Marcus Oshiro, D-39th (Wahiawa), who as chairman of the House Finance Committee voted with reservations Monday night to move the bill to the House floor, voted "no" yesterday.

Asked by a reporter afterward to explain, Oshiro paused and thought for more than a minute before declining to answer. Oshiro had told colleagues before that he did not want to come into special session and believed lawmakers were bailing out the Republican governor and wealthy, well-connected Superferry investors and executives for their mistakes. On Monday, Oshiro confronted Lingle during the committee hearing about why she has gone to such lengths to defend Superferry and why her administration exempted the project from environmental review.

Oshiro had supported provisions in the bill to help shield the state from lawsuits by Superferry and to require the state auditor to investigate the Lingle administration's decision-making on the project.

'THIS IS A SAD DAY'

Several lawmakers said they doubted the vote was the end of the Superferry controversy, since Lingle now has to come up with specific operating conditions on ferry service and activists are already planning protests for when Superferry returns to the Neighbor Islands.

"This is a sad day not only for Hawai'i's sustainability, but for democracy," Lance Holter, chairman of the Maui Group of the Sierra Club, said in a statement. "Not only did the Legislature rush through a bill to override the judiciary branch, the Legislature allowed the final outcome of the measure to be dictated by the Superferry corporation."

The Sierra Club will evaluate its next steps and give Lingle input on operating conditions for Superferry to protect the environment while the state conducts an environmental review.

Activists on Kaua'i and Maui are planning protests on Sunday as a prelude for what may happen when the ferry returns. On Kaua'i, protesters are calling their event "The Nawiliwili Ti Party" and may paddle surfboards and kayaks into Nawiliwili Harbor. On Maui, activists may hold hands and surround the Wailuku courthouse where a Maui judge ruled to block the ferry from Kahului Harbor.

"We're going to demonstrate our strength, our determination, and our resolve to protect Hawai'i," said Andrea Brower, an activist with Malama Kaua'i. "It's outrageous that our governor and our Legislature had the audacity to undermine our 30-year-old environmental law."

Brower said many activists have mostly blamed the governor for defending Superferry, but said lawmakers also are culpable. "The Legislature could have chosen not to be co-conspirators," she said.

Lingle has said she would likely come up with operating conditions for Superferry within two weeks and has predicted they would not satisfy either Superferry executives or the project's critics.

One key operating condition that lawmakers added to the bill already is in doubt. The bill requires Superferry to apply for an incidental-take permit with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that could set operating conditions to protect whales and give Superferry some liability protection if the ferry strikes whales. Superferry also must request observers from NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service to join the ferry when travelling through a humpback whale sanctuary.

But a NOAA official has informed lawmakers and the state that the only scenario where observers would be deployed was after Superferry obtained the incidental-take permit, which could take at least a year and possibly several years. The official said if the Legislature wants observers on the ferry, it should either require Superferry to hire independent consultants or pay for state observers.

State Rep. K. Mark Takai, D-34th (Newtown, Waiau, Pearl City), who voted for the bill, said the Lingle administration should work toward some solution that addresses the objections of the project's critics. He acknowledged that he did not have any answers but said he did not want to see anyone hurt if there are protests.

"It's going to take a lot of work, a lot of patience, and a lot of understanding throughout this state," Takai said.

HIGHLIGHTS OF BILL

The state House and Senate have approved a bill that allows Hawaii Superferry to resume service while the state conducts an environmental review of the project. Gov. Linda Lingle is expected to sign the bill into law.

HERE IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE BILL'S KEY PROVISIONS: