Disappeared News

“If Hawaii has a series of tough environmental protection laws and a cadre of bureaucrats to enforce them, it is because we know that the free market leads to bulldozers and cement mixers at dawn. Tom Coffman, historian, author and journalist, says meddling with environmental legislation is risky. ‘Abandoning the environment, mining the irreplaceable resources, will put the Democrats of Hawaii on the wrong side of history. When the public figures it out, there will be a 1954 in reverse,’ Coffman said.”

Richard Borreca’s On Politics column is worth the cost of the newspaper subscription. It’s a pity that the Star-Advertiser keeps his writing locked away behind a paywall.

Today’s column cut right to the chase on the potential carnage that the Legislature is about to wreak this session on Hawaii’s environmental protections. It also got me thinking again that the autocratic system of lawmaking that we call our state legislature is overdue for an overhaul.

It is also seems strange to me that in Hawaii’s near-monolithic Democratic legislature, the champions of our environmental protections are Republicans.

The Legislature's strongest and most informed environmentalist is not some baby-faced, starry-eyed Democrat, fresh from college who just "wants to give back."

It is 78-year-old GOP Rep. Cynthia Thielen, a veteran environmental attorney who battled the state over the development of the H-3 freeway.

She says the Democrats "are looking at the environment as an inconvenience." She says throw out the four bills, Hawaii's environmental laws are good enough, don't exempt anything more. When asked if the legislation could be amended to compromise, Thielen flatly said, "No."

[Star-Advertiser, Isle Democrats lead charge against the environment, 4/13/2012]

I’m a great fan of Rep. Thielen. If the Legislature followed her lead, not only would our environmental laws remain intact, we’d already have alternative energy powering our coffee makers instead of burning coal, oil and incinerating garbage and paying the highest electric rates in the country.

I’m also recalling that in the House Finance hearing I attended to testify against the evil bill SB755, it was Representative Sharon Har, a Democrat, who was allowed by the Vice Chair to mount a mean-spirited and uncalled for attack on an individual testifier. It was Republican Gene Ward who raised a point of order calling on her to give it up.

While the drama was playing out in the hearing room, behind the scenes in the adjacent room, leadership had already begun decisionmaking on that and other bills.

There’s not much democracy involved. In this particular committee, the Chair simply pops out at 2 a.m. and basically instructs the committee members on how they will vote, the same as powerful chairs do on other committees. In past sessions I’ve seen Speaker Say in and out of the Finance hearings as well. It’s clear that our laws are fashioned not by the votes of the people’s representatives, but by how they are told to vote by their leadership.

Often, they are voting on proposed amendments they haven’t even seen (and won’t ever see, since the amendments go not to the committee voting but to the next committee down the line).

It’s this system of powerful leadership that is willing to cave to developers in the face of public opposition. They can do this because there are no consequences for them.

Borreca is correct in pointing out that Democrats are on the wrong side of this.

But what do they care? In the coming election, most will run unopposed.

Borreca’s article doesn’t call for reform, but I do. The ease with which our environmental protections can be set aside by decisions made not according to the public will but to satisfy special interests borders on corruption. The fight to keep our laws intact is an important one, but when will we get around to reforming a system of government that is undemocratic and unresponsive to the public will? When will we have a system that allows committee members to vote according to the testimony they have heard rather than according to the instructions of the committee chair?

And don’t get me started on conference committees, which is where SB755 and other bills end up next. Democracy has nothing to do with conference committees, which can reverse anything done in committees or in floor sessions. House and Senate leadership appoint members of the conference committees who will vote as they are told.

When will we take charge of our own state government?

Permalink posted by Larry @ 4/13/2012 06:54:00 AM