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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 10:18 a.m., Thursday, October 25, 2007

Superferry hearing under way

Advertiser Staff

The House Committee on Transportation and the House Committee on Finance opened their hearing this morning shortly after 9:15 a.m. to consider a bill that would allow the Hawaii Superferry to operate while the state conducts an environmental assessment.

Rep. Joe Souki opened the hearings by saying: "Let's begin the healing process."

Rep. Gene Ward, R-17th (Kalama Valley, Queen's Gate, Hawai'i Kai) asked the first speaker, Barry Fukunaga, director of the state Department of Transportation, how many times an inter-island ferry service has been attempted in Hawaiian waters over the last 40 years.

Fukunaga, who granted the Superferry an exemption from an environmental assessment as the department's deputy director, said he did not know the answer.

"Obviously, none of them have been successful," Fukunaga said. "... It's certainly a time now when we have the ability to see that come to fruition."