2025 Legislative Session: Local Power, Lasting Change
By Kirsten Kagimoto, Deputy Director and Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director | Reading time: 11.25 minutes
With all the chaos and uncertainty in national politics, raising our voices in the Hawai‘i legislature is more critical now than ever - especially as local and national corporate interest groups ramp up their attacks on longstanding protections for our ‘āina and communities, and as grassroots communities rise up to confront the greatest challenges we have ever faced. Fortunately, so many of you have shown that Hawaiʻi’s people are not going to stand down and wait for Washington to stabilize; we can and must uphold our kuleana to take action right here at home to protect what matters most: our beautiful islands, our tight-knit communities, and the hopeful future we can and must build together, for ourselves and for the generations that follow ours.
Below is a summary of selected priority bills that we have advocated on this session, many of which have lived or died because of the willingness of so many people in our CapitolWatch program (sign up for action alerts here!) to raise their voices with our elected officials. However, first, here is a list of bills that have been scheduled for a hearing this coming week, that your testimony can make a difference:
UPCOMING BILL HEARINGS OF NOTE:
Defending Our Wai
Like HB969 (see below), SB438 would protect our precious and limited drinking water resources from the threat of landfills, which can and will leak extremely toxic leachate that would inevitably contaminate any underlying drinking water aquifer, and jeopardize the water security of our future generations. Please support this bill at its hearing before the Senate Water and Land Committee on Monday, February 10, at 1:05 pm in Conference Room 229 (also viewable online here).
Sample testimony for SB438 (see below for testimony submission instructions):
Aloha Chair Inouye, Vice Chair Elefante, and members of the Water and Land Committee,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly support SB438, which would prohibit the construction, modification, or expansion of waste and disposal facilities on land above significant aquifers.
This bill is crucial for protecting our vital groundwater resources. Our aquifers are irreplaceable sources of freshwater that sustain our communities and ʻāina. Once contaminated, these water sources can be permanently damaged, putting public health and our environment at risk.
Protecting our water is about protecting our health, our environment, and the future of everyone who calls Hawaiʻi home.
I urge you to PASS SB438.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Environmental Review
Our environmental review laws help to safeguard our native ecosystems, cultural sites, public health, economy, and quality of life from unintended and avoidable impacts, by ensuring that government decisionmakers consider impacts to these and other vital public interests in actions involving state or county lands or funds (among other specified circumstances), as well as ways these impacts might be mitigated. These reviews enable informed decisions that balance and mitigate long-term impacts on our environment, culture, and society - saving the state from immeasurable social, ecological, economic, and other impacts.
Three measures, HB661, HB123, and HB658, would seek to end-run recent Hawai‘i court rulings on the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ failure to abide by our environmental review laws, and in the process, open the door to the continued rubber-stamping of commercial and other activities, without considering their environmental impacts. These bills all have hearings on Tuesday, February 11, with HB661 and HB123 scheduled for 9:15 am before the Energy & Environmental Protection and Water and Land Committees in room 325 (viewable online here) and HB658 scheduled for 10:15 am before the Energy & Environmental Protection Committee in room 325 (viewable online here). Please take a moment to OPPOSE these measures - sample testimony below.
Sample testimony for HB661 (see below for testimony submission instructions):
Aloha Chair Lowen, Chair Chair Hashem, Vice Chair Perruso, Vice Chair Lamosao, and Members of the Committees,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly oppose HB661, which would allow a vast range of illegally authorized activities to continue, potentially indefinitely, without a required consideration of their environmental, cultural, and social impacts to our islands and our present and future generations.
Our environmental review law allows decisionmakers and the public to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
Unfortunately, the failure of certain departments to comply with this law before authorizing certain actions - such as in the take of an unlimited number of of ecologically critical marine specimens for the aquarium trade, or the decades-long dewatering of streams in East Maui - has resulted in severe and in some cases irreparable ecological, cultural, social, and economic harms that could and should have been avoided through the prudent planning embodied in our environmental review law.
By allowing illegally authorized activities to continue while environmental review challenges are resolved - something that has taken literal decades in the dewatering of East Maui’s streams - this bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing unlawful and irresponsible agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict tremendous generational harms and injustices upon our islands and communities.
I urge you to HOLD HB661.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Sample testimony for HB123 (see below for testimony submission instructions):
Aloha Chair Lowen, Chair Hashem, Vice Chair Perruso, Vice Chair Lamosao, and Members of the Committees,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly oppose HB123, which would allow the Department of Land and Natural Resources to evade any assessment of the environmental impacts of its fishery management decisions - including decisions that may open up our ocean resources to unmitigated commercial exploitation.
Our environmental review law allows decisionmakers and the public to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
Unfortunately, the Department of Land and Natural Resources has a long and notorious history of turning a blind eye to its critical statutory and public trust responsibilities, such as by authorizing a fishery program that permits the use of otherwise unlawful gear to take an unlimited amount of marine life for aquarium purposes, without any environmental review. This measure would not only legitimize this longstanding practice that has been affirmed as illegal by the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, but excuse the department from its environmental review responsibilities for similar fisheries-related actions with potentially deleterious ecological, cultural, recreational, climate resilience, and economic impacts.
This bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing illegal agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict potentially irreparable harms to our marine life and the vast public interest in our ocean environment.
I urge you to HOLD HB123.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Sample testimony for HB658 (see below for testimony submission instructions):
Aloha Chair Lowen, Vice Chair Perruso, and Members of the Energy & Environmental Protection Committee,
My name is [Your name] and I strongly oppose HB658, which would allow the Department of Land and Natural Resources to evade any assessment of the environmental impacts of its ocean use and management decisions.
Our environmental review law allows decisionmakers and the public to make more fully-informed decisions that can balance and mitigate potential long-term impacts to the public interest from certain proposed activities, before those activities and their impacts are allowed to proceed. This ensures prudent planning while reducing conflict, minimizing adverse outcomes, and safeguarding the health and well-being of present and future generations.
Unfortunately, the Department of Land and Natural Resources has a long and notorious history of turning a blind eye to its critical statutory and public trust responsibilities, such as by operating a commercial boating permitting regime without any environmental review and without due regard for the environmental, cultural, recreational, and broader economic concerns of the public. This measure would not only legitimize this longstanding practice that has been affirmed as illegal by our court system, but also excuse the department from its environmental review responsibilities for similar ocean use authorizations with potentially deleterious ecological, cultural, recreational, climate resilience, and economic impacts.
This bill would turn our environmental review process into an afterthought, legitimizing illegal agency practices that have inflicted and that will continue to inflict potentially irreparable harms to the vast and varied public interests in our ocean environment.
I urge you to HOLD HB658.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter “SB438/HB661/HB123/HB658” where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information and your written testimony, select your testimony option(s)—in-person + written, remotely + written, written only. Please consider providing verbal testimony (in-person or remotely) if you are able! Note: Virtual testimony option may be disabled 24 hours before the hearing.
If you are testifying via Zoom, be sure to review these instructions (page 4)
BILL UPDATES:
See below for a summary of selected bills that have already been heard this session, and that the community’s voice has helped make a difference on!
Red Hill
HB639, the “no jet fuel in water” bill, makes clear that any jet fuel, jet fuel additives, or compounds resulting from the degradation of jet fuel must be completely and fully remediated in the event of a leak from an underground storage tank. It was passed out of its first joint committee hearing and has one committee left in the House before moving to the Senate. Learn more about this bill and follow its progress here.
HB505 establishes a Policy Coordinator for coordination of Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative (WAI) initiatives and creates the Red Hill Remediation Special Fund. While we support this bill, amendments are needed to ensure the new position and its work are as politically insulated from the pressures of the U.S. Navy as possible. This bill was passed out of its first committee and has two more committees to face in the House before moving to the Senate.
Invasive species
SB252 targets the importation and sale of infested items, two major pathways for invasive species to be introduced to and spread across our islands. This measure was passed out of its first joint committee hearing and has one more joint hearing left in the Senate before moving to the House. Learn more about this bill and follow its progress here.
HB427 emphasizes the Department of Agriculture’s long-neglected biosecurity role, establishing a deputy director of biosecurity to focus on fulfilling this role, and providing the renamed DAB with additional biosecurity tools and funds for much-needed staff positions. While these changes are generally positive, accountability mechanisms are needed to ensure the department and its deputy actually take their biosecurity responsibilities seriously—changes that were not made in the measure’s first committee hearing. This bill has two more committees to face in the House before moving to the Senate. Learn more about this bill and follow its progress here.
HB299 would appropriate $4.25M each year for the next two years for the Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council (HISC)—$1.5M less than what the legislature provided it last year. HISC is a critical foundation of our invasive species response, eradication, and management framework and deserves additional funding. This bill was passed out of its first committee, without needed amendments to allocate additional funds, and has two committees left to face in the House before moving to the Senate. Learn more about this bill and follow its progress here.
SB1100 is an omnibus bill that would rename the Department of Agriculture as the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity (DAB), create a Deputy of Biosecurity position, and place HISC and other programs under DAB. It would also establish an emergency response program among other provisions. Nearly 200 pages of testimony were submitted voicing concerns about certain provisions with potentially devastating impacts on our existing biosecurity framework - and by extension, on our islands as a whole. Ultimately, the bill was passed out of the committees with the majority of the Department of Agriculture’s amendments and no amendments to address the Sierra Club and allies’ concerns. Learn more about this bill and follow its progress here.
Landfill
HB969 prohibits the construction, modification, or expansion of any waste or disposal facility on land that is near or above a significant aquifer as determined by the Department of Health. This bill was passed out of its first committee and has two committees left to face in the House before moving to the Senate. Learn more about this bill and follow its progress here.
Building Codes
Three “put profit over people building codes” bills, SB48 and SB120/HB1, were all deferred in their first committees following dozens of pages of testimony in opposition. Mahalo to everyone that submitted testimony on these measures! Learn more about these bills here and why they are problematic here.
There are many, many more bills in play - including some that will need your continued engagement to ensure the best possible outcomes. Please be sure to sign up for action alerts and other opportunities to engage on these measures at hawaiicapitolwatch.org and follow us on Instagram at @sierraclubhi for the latest updates!
P.S. Every year, monied special interests try to subvert the public good by undermining or dismantling critical protections for our islands, communities, and future generations. The voice of the community - your voice - is often the only thing that can help hold our government accountable, and can and does make all the difference not just for our islands today, but the generations to come! If you appreciate the Sierra Club’s work in informing and helping the community engage with the legislative process, and uphold our collective kuleana to our islands, please consider supporting us by becoming a monthly donor or making a contribution here. Mahalo nui!