Gov. Josh Green is pledging to help “promptly” establish a procedure to permit construction of a controversial telescope atop Mauna Kea on a site previously developed for observatory use.
Green recently made the commitment in a letter to the organization trying to build the Thirty Meter Telescope after a TMT project manager told a state board in September that it would be helpful to know what’s required to develop the long-planned observatory on a previously disturbed site instead of an undisturbed site where construction was blocked by protesters in 2019.
In an Oct. 24 letter to leaders of the California-based Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory, Green said he and officials in his administration will work with the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority and the University of Hawaii to promptly establish a clear and transparent procedure for obtaining necessary permits associated with a decommissioned telescope site on Hawaii’s tallest mountain.
“This effort will involve careful planning and coordination to define the key steps and requirements of the permitting process, including both administrative and legal procedures, as well as an anticipated timeline, thereby ensuring clarity, accountability, and compliance with statutory obligations,” Green wrote.
The letter followed a presentation to the authority’s board in Hilo on Sept. 11 by TMT project manager Fengchuan Liu, who told board members that the entity trying to develop the roughly $3 billion telescope will consider redevelopment of a former telescope site, including where the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory had been until last year.
“We would consider that possibility, very much so,” Liu told the board. “However, the question would always be, ‘What is the process?’ It would be very helpful to know what is the process and what is the time that is required to get another permit.”
A 2022 state law creating the authority gave the entity responsibilities that include establishing a framework for astronomy-related development on the Hawaii island mountain that “may include” prioritizing reuse of footprints of observatories that are decommissioned or scheduled for decommissioning.
To date, the authority has not established such a procedure.
Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, an authority board member who was one of about 40 people arrested for blocking TMT construction in 2019, asked Liu whether a new environmental impact statement would be necessary to develop the telescope on a decommissioned observatory site.
Liu said his expertise doesn’t extend to such a regulatory area but that his understanding is that a new EIS would be required in place of the one completed in 2010. Liu also said the TMT development organization would look to state guidance on the issue.
Hawaii island Mayor Kimo Alameda, who also is on the authority board, called the willingness by TMT’s developer to pursue a decommissioned site “promising.”
Alameda also noted during the meeting that TMT’s 18-story observatory building would not be visible from below if it were built on the former Caltech site because the site is in a gully atop the 13,803-foot mountain.
Yet opposition to TMT being built anywhere on Mauna Kea is still expected because many Native Hawaiians view any new observatory construction as desecration of a mountain they consider sacred.
Hilo resident Kanoe Case told board members that she attended the meeting to keep up with “watching the ball” and that she and other Native Hawaiians were not going to accept that ball rolling in what may be a new direction.
“The direction of the ball is controversial,” she said.
Liu, in his presentation to the board, said the TMT development organization apologized in 2021 for its prior “U.S.-centric approach” to build the telescope, and that since then there has been a reset and a commitment to obtain community support and have an ultimate decision over TMT made by the people of Hawaii.
Through a community outreach effort led by Liu and a small team in Hilo, there have been conversations about TMT with more than 1,500 people, most of whom live on Hawaii island and including close to 800 people who protested against TMT earlier, according to Liu.
“In a lot of these conversations,” Liu said, “we focus on listening and learning, and we actually learn the most from criticism. … Ultimately the future of astronomy, the future of TMT on Mauna Kea, will be decided by people in Hawaii, by this (board), by the Native Hawaiian community, and that’s how it should be.”
TMT, described as astronomy’s “next generation” observatory, was initially slated for construction on Mauna Kea in 2015 but got halted that year initially by protesters who blocked construction vehicles.
A further setback due to a legal challenge over permitting wasn’t overcome until 2018, but construction was blocked again in 2019 by protesters who occupied an access road leading to Mauna Kea’s summit for eight months.
In 2022, the Legislature passed a bill that became Act 255 and established the authority, which is to assume complete management of a long-established astronomy precinct on the mountain from UH following a five-year transition period.
Under a UH Mauna Kea master plan, no more than nine observatories would remain upon expiration of a science reserve area lease in 2033, down from 14 before the removal of the Caltech facility along with UH-Hilo’s Hoku Kea telescope in 2024.
The removal of five telescopes from Mauna Kea is a condition of the TMT’s conservation district use permit.
Caltech is one of the partners trying to develop TMT, along with the University of California and science institutions from China, India, Canada and Japan. The developers also have sought major funding from the National Science Foundation for TMT, parts of which are still in a design phase.
While TMT’s developers have continued to pursue Mauna Kea for the telescope, they also are entertaining an offer announced in July by the government of Spain to invest in the project if it is built in the Canary Islands.
Liu told the authority board in September that proposed congressional funding in the 2026 federal fiscal year budget for TMT was stronger in the Senate than in the House, and absent from the proposed budget from the White House. The federal government has been largely shut down since the 2026 fiscal year began Oct. 1 after Congress could not agree on new or continued spending legislation.
All four members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation — U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono, and U.S. Reps. Ed Case and Jill Tokuda — signed onto Green’s letter to the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory board Chair Henry Yang and and Co-chair Saku Tsuneta.
“We look forward to working with TIO and the broader community to honor the shared responsibility for stewardship of Maunakea and the success of this project,” the letter said.
Tokuda said in a statement on Tuesday that she and other federal lawmakers plan to send a bipartisan letter to House Appropriations Committee leadership respectfully urging that the House adopt Senate bill language for TMT.
“I believe we can — and must — pursue science and cultural respect together, ensuring Native Hawaiian voices are included in decisions about stewardship, environmental protection, and historic preservation,” Tokuda said. “With open minds, continued dialogue, and courage, the Thirty Meter Telescope can be an opportunity for Hawai‘i to contribute to our understanding of the universe — but it cannot come at the expense of who we are as a people or our values.”
Source: The Garden Island
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