It was a busy day for me. At 8 a.m., I met researchers from the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at our Hamakua Springs County Farms at Pepe‘ekeo. They were visiting to understand how they might help us develop fish food by recycling our farm waste. We talked for a while. I showed them our tilapia, and they were happy they visited so they could understand the scope of our project.

By 9:30 a.m., I was at ‘Imiloa to observe the Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting, which was to discuss and make decisions about the 4 sub plans they were requesting be added to the Comprehensive Management Plan.

I noticed that there was more people attending this hearing than the last. And there were less folks in the audience who were against the CMP than last time. My immediate assessment was that some of those folks must have been satisfied with the extra requirement  the Land Board required last time.

I signed up to give a short statement. This was the speech I had planned to give.

From the time we started down this path of developing a Comprehensive Management Plan for Maunakea, the world has changed. We are suddenly realizing that although the world is not running out of oil, it is running out of cheap oil we can afford to burn. The International Energy Association, the official world oil barrel counter, tells us that the natural decline rate of world oil fields is 4 million barrels of oil per day each year. Since Saudi Arabia produces only little more than 8 million barrels per day, we need to find a new Saudi Arabia every two years. And it is estimated that within 30 years, the oil exporting countries will no longer be exporting oil. This is very scary!

Patrick Kahawaiola‘a, president of the Keaukaha Community Association, once told me: “It is the process that is most important.” If that is so, I thought, then everyone who contributes to the process helps to make a better end product. That means we have to aloha everyone who contributes to the process, no matter what side of the issue.

Especially now, in this changing world, we need to strengthen our communities; we must make more friends and stay closer to the ones we have. We can agree to disagree. But when this is all over, let’s all respect each others’ contribution.

By 10:15 I’d run out of time to testify, and I caught a plane to O‘ahu. Later in the afternoon, I got a text message that the four sub plans had been approved by the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

I thought of how hard Kealoha Pisciotta, Nelson Ho, Debbie Ward, Clarence Ching, Paul Neves, the Kanaka Council, Hank Fergerstrom, Palikapu Dedman, Jimmie Medeiros and many others have fought to get their voices heard. I know that the reason we have this good Comprehensive Management Plan is because we all had to stretch and work even harder on the CMP than if they had said nothing.

So we must aloha them. For they helped immeasurably to make this Comprehensive Management Plan a better document.

And, then a couple of hours later I was testifying before the Senate on Senate Concurrent resolution 99— REQUESTING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A WORKING GROUP TO ANALYZE THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY AS THE PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCE TO MEET THE BASELOAD DEMAND FOR ELECTRICITY ON THE BIG ISLAND.

More about that here on Monday.