Review of State EIS Process

This report was prepared pursuant to Act 1, Session Laws of Hawaii 2008, which requested that the University of Hawaii conduct this study of the environmental review system and develop legislative recommendations for modernizing Hawaii’s system of environmental review.
Download the PDF file here.
The first half of the Report includes introductory and background sections, a detailed description of the study process, and a discussion of the events of the 2010 legislative session. The latter half of the report focuses on detailing a set of comprehensive recommendations for improving Hawaii’s environmental review system. The report focuses on five areas of concern within the system: (1) applicability, (2) governance, (3) participation, (4) content and, (5) process, and describes identified issues and specific recommendations for addressing them.

Input from stakeholders was a key source of information used in determining the recommended changes to the system, and helped to shape and guide our study throughout the process. Please feel free to contact us about the study via email at EISstudy@hawaii.edu or through the project blog at http://hawaiiEISstudy.blogspot.com.

Thank You,
The UH Environmental Review Study Team