Monday, July 26, 2010
Mufi fiscally irresponsible to ignore Superferry losses
by Larry Geller
Again, the news tells us that Mufi Hannemann is serious about trying to revive the Hawaii Superferry, with the same ships that couldn’t be economically successful the first time around.
Maybe, like Sarah Palin or George Bush, he just doesn’t read the newspapers. The Associated Press revealed on 7/21/2010 that the Superferry was unable to pay its fees to the State fully nine months before it ultimately went bankrupt. Analyst Brad Parsons had estimated the costs of running such a large, fuel-hungry ship much earlier and published the information on his popular blog.
Our press seems unwilling to ask the hardball questions. Won’t a reporter please confront him on this one day soon?
Perhaps hizzoner knows the economic facts but is playing to the Oahu voter’s dreams of the Superferry’s return, and their belief that it was viable business killed by a bunch of Maui and Kauai tree huggers and whale worshippers.
All the more reason for some reporter to call him on it and set the record straight.
See also:
Hannemann Wants To Revive Hawaii Superferry: Opponent Abercrombie Called That A Fantasy (KITV, 7/26/2010)
Candidates for governor pitch economic plans (AP, 7/26/2010)
Will Mufi “turn to desperate measures, like, say, reviving Hawaii’s Superferry” if he becomes governor? (7/25/2010)
Another fiscal irresponsible decision by Hannemann joining the rail project.
: July 27, 2010 at 10:22:00 AM HST Hannemann apparently did not following or read any of the Bankruptcy Court proceedings, listing how they got into steady operating losses, or even some of the PBN articles that interviewed former Austal executives on the Superferry's size and engine power being too large and expensive to operate over time at anything other than a loss for the distances involved. Plus, the ferry never could get demand up to a point where it would cover their costs, because the ride in the channels was too rough and the people of Oahu knew that from their watercooler conversations. Furthermore, recently the PUC cancelled the Superferry's CPCN, so there's that and the EIS to do. I don't know how Mufi could have missed all of these pertinent details, being right there in the middle of it. He apparently just doesn't care to know or understand the details. The Superferry is really a dead issue, but this offers true insight into the manner in which Goofy Hannemann would govern, should the voters error on that point.
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