RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, environmental justice issues may arise at any step of the environmental impact statement process under chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and agencies or applicants should consider these issues at each and every step of the process; and

WHEREAS, environmental justice issues encompass a broad range of impacts covered by chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, including impacts on the natural or physical environment and interrelated social, cultural, and economic effects; and

WHEREAS, in preparing an environmental impact statement or an environmental assessment, agencies or applicants should consider both impacts on the natural or physical environment and related social, cultural, and economic impacts, as well as alternative actions; and

WHEREAS, environmental justice concerns may arise from impacts on the natural and physical environment, such as human health or ecological impacts on minority populations, low-income populations, and native Hawaiians, or from related social or economic impacts; and

WHEREAS, the question of whether an agency's or applicant's proposed action raises environmental justice issues is highly sensitive to the history or circumstances of a particular community or population, the particular type of environmental or human health impacts, and the nature of the proposed action itself; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature fundamentally is committed to the immediate priority of ensuring the systematic inclusion of principles of environmental justice as a required component of environmental review for proposed actions at the earliest possible time in the environmental impact statement process under chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

WHEREAS, in implementing former President Clinton's Executive Order 12898, dated December 10, 1997, the Council on Environmental Quality issued a guidance document that served as the template for ensuring compliance with the President's directive; and

WHEREAS, for many years, the Office of Environmental Quality Control has issued guidance documents to clarify the intent and proper procedures for the implementation of chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

WHEREAS, under section 341-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the state Environmental Council is required to "monitor the progress of state, county, and federal agencies in achieving the State's environmental goals and policies" and to serve as a liaison between the Director of the Office of Environmental Quality and Control and the general public; and

WHEREAS, the Office of Environmental Quality Control, pursuant to section 341-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is required to encourage "public acceptance of proposed legislative and administrative actions concerning ecology and environmental quality"; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawai‘i Environmental Center, pursuant to section 341-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is required to "stimulate, expand, and coordinate education, research, and service efforts of the university related to ecological relationships, natural resources, and environmental quality, with special relation to human needs and social institutions"; and

WHEREAS, on two prior occasions, in 1978 and 1991, the Environmental Center, with funding from the Office of Environmental Quality Control, has conducted comprehensive reviews of the state environmental impact statement process; and

WHEREAS, in the fourteen years since the publication of the last review of the State's environmental impact statement process, amendments to chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, have been enacted, state environmental quality concerns have evolved, and novel issues relating to the quality of the State's environment have emerged; and

WHEREAS, fiscal support for a scholarly review to evaluate the continued efficacy and possible need to revise chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires legislative support beyond the scope of a resolution; and

WHEREAS, over the past thirty-four years, the resources of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, the Environmental Council, and the Environmental Center and the structural core of the State's environmental review process have been instrumental in implementing the legislative findings of section 341-12, Hawaii Revised Statutes, namely, that the quality of the environment is as important as the economy of the State to the welfare of the people of Hawai‘i; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Environmental Council, with the assistance of the Office of Environmental Quality Control and the University of Hawai‘i Environmental Center, is requested to develop and promulgate a guidance document on including principles of environmental justice in all phases of environmental review undertaken pursuant to chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes; provided that in developing the guidance document, input should be sought from a wide segment of interested parties, including high school students who are concerned about this issue; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature finds that the need for continued evaluation and improvement of the State's environmental impact statement process may justify the commitment of state funds for a renewed study of the environmental impact statement process through a legislative appropriation in the Regular Session of 2006; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Environmental Council is requested to submit its comments, findings, and recommendations on any need to update the State's environmental impact statement process that may be discovered while conducting its review of chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, for guidance document purposes, regardless of whether these comments, findings, and recommendations may relate to the guidance document itself; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Environmental Council is requested to submit the requested guidance document and recommendations for legislation, if any, that may be required, including updates to chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2006; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to members of Hawai‘i's congressional delegation, the Governor, the Director of Health, the Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, the Chairperson of the Environmental Council, and the Director of the University of Hawai‘i Environmental Center.

Report Title:

Environmental Justice; Review of Environmental Impact Statement