Opinion ID: 2515085
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Act 2 realistically restricts the benefits of its alternative environmental review process to Superferry.

Text: Section 8 of Act 2 restricts the benefits of Act 2's alternative environmental review process to considering the impacts of operating a single large capacity ferry vessel company. Section 8 of Act 2 provides that: The department of transportation shall prepare or contract to prepare an environmental impact statement for the improvements made or to be made to commercial harbors throughout the state that require the expenditure of public funds to accommodate the use thereof by a large capacity ferry vessel company and the secondary effects of those operations on the state's environment, including the operation of the large capacity ferry vessel company. Act 2, ง 8 at 12 (emphases added). There is no indication in section 8 that the required environmental impact statement must consider the impacts of operating more than one large capacity ferry vessel company. Id. Additionally, section 8 directs the preparation of only one environmental impact statement. Id. Upon the acceptance of this final environmental impact statement by the Office of Environmental Quality Control (OEQC), the Act and its alternative environmental review process will be repealed. See Act 2 ง 12 at 17, ง 18 at 20. Based on the language of section 8, if future members attempted to join the class of a large capacity ferry vessel company during the twenty-one-month life of Act 2, the environmental impact statement prepared by DOT, which considered the impacts of only one company using State harbor facilities, ostensibly Superferry as it is the only large capacity ferry vessel company presently operating, would be inadequate even under Act 2's alternative review process. See Act 2, ง 9(d) at 12 (The environmental impact statement shall contain an explanation of the environmental consequences of the action. The contents shall fully declare the environmental implications of the action and shall discuss all relevant and feasible consequences of the action.). In that case, an environmental impact statement for the additional large capacity ferry vessel company would likely be required. If an environmental impact statement became necessary to properly consider the impacts of an additional company using State harbor facilities, that statement would not be governed by the process provided by Act 2. The OEQC's acceptance of the first environmental impact statement would trigger the automatic repeal of Act 2. As such, any future class members attempting to use State harbor facilities would be subject to an environmental review process governed by the more rigorous requirements of HRS chapter 343. See HRS ง 343-5(b) (1993 & Supp. 2008) (Acceptance of a required final statement shall be a condition precedent to implementation of the proposed action. (emphasis added)). Accordingly, future members of the class created by Act 2 would not have the right to operate during the environmental review process, a right granted to Superferry, the only qualifying class member at the time Act 2 was enacted. Therefore, even if other companies attempted to enter the class of a large capacity ferry vessel company during the twenty-one-month existence of Act 2, those future members would not receive the same rights and benefits granted to Superferry, the single member in existence at the time of enactment. As such, the class created by Act 2 is logically and factually limited to a `class of one,' and thus is illusory. Canister, 110 P.3d at 385.