Report Title:

Oppose Carbon Dioxide Experiments off Kona Coast

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

64

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

opposing any resumption of the proposal to conduct carbon dioxide experiments off the Kona coast.

 

WHEREAS, the Board of Directors of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) recently voted to exclude an experiment with carbon dioxide from its Kona waters; and

WHEREAS, the NELHA board had earlier given a preliminary approval to the experiment on carbon dioxide "sequestration," or the locking of carbon dioxide in ocean water; and

WHEREAS, the experiment, under the direction of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, would pump small amounts of liquefied carbon dioxide two hours at a time, increasing to 7.6 metric tons in two hours; and

WHEREAS, scientists anticipate that a plume of droplets would rise and dissolve in the water and the droplets would turn the water in the fifty-foot-wide plume from its normal slight alkalinity to a slight acidity, and that the effects could last six to twelve hours; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of the experiment is to determine exactly how big the plume is, how acidic, and how long it lasts; and

WHEREAS, the NELHA board, however, voted against this experiment in its final form because of concerns about its scientific merits, possible legal ramifications, a change in scope, general public opposition, and opposition by the Keahole Point Tenants Association; and

WHEREAS, opponents quoted the Union of Concerned Scientists, which said ocean sequestration is untested and that it must be carefully studied; and

WHEREAS, research groups have used this same argument to press for testing; and

WHEREAS, the NELHA exclusion applies only to a defined area of ocean at Keahole Point about two miles wide and 2.6 miles out to sea; and

WHEREAS, the experiment might still be done in the general area, perhaps outside the State's 3-mile-wide territorial waters; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-First Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that the Legislature states its opposition to any resumption of the proposal to conduct carbon dioxide experiments in Hawaiian waters; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Board of Directors of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority and to the Board of Directors of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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