La'au Point (Moloka'i) EIS Withdrawn

Victory! We have won this round!

The Save La'au 'Ohana presented thorough and extensive testimony all day yesterday. Then at about 6pm Thursday evening, the Molokai Community came out in force to say 'A'ole La'au! The hall was packed with red shirts from wall to wall - with at least 300 people there to support. Powerful testimony was given, hula was presented, aloha and aloha 'aina was shared. It was overwhelming and amazing! It is clear that there is no "silent majority" of development supporters (or a "vocal minority" of anti-development people); rather, there is only a community of passionate and intelligent people who love the land, love their island, and want to protect that land, the water, and La'au Point!

This morning, Molokai Ranch asked to withdraw their Final EIS after an motion was made by the LUC to not accept the EIS for reasons of inadequacy. Cheers and applause rang throughout the room! This truly caught everyone off guard (especially the Ranch) as Molokai Ranch had not even presented testimony themselves; however, the inadequacy of the EIS was glaringly apparent.

So Molokai Ranch then asked to withdraw their EIS before the LUC could throw it out the door themselves by voting to reject it. (The Ranch even went on record saying that 'Yah, we feel we should have done a better job. Yah, we now see some things we missed.' Interesting since just last week they were claiming it to be one of the best EISs ever, and completely adequate!)

Molokai Ranch can now revise their EIS and re-submit it; however, according to the law, it must be submitted as a "new EIS." (That means it must go through the whole draft EIS process of publication, public comment, and further revision before it can be re-filed as a final EIS.) This will cost the Ranch a whole lot of money and time to do - and will delay this whole thing even longer. We can only hope that they will come to their senses and do more than just withdraw their EIS, but also withdraw their whole proposal for the La'au development - a development that the community has said NO to again and again, including the very strong NO yesterday!

To all of you who have written with words of support, and have been standing together with Molokai in your prayers. I just want to say mahalo nui loa! Everyone adds their mana in their own way, and the result is very powerful and profound!

It's not over yet - La'au is still not saved, and still not safe; but for now we will simply celebrate this victory, give deep thanks during this season of Thanksgiving, and then holomua - go forward on our journey to Save La'au and to Save Moloka'i! I hope you will continue to stand an journey with us as we do!

Mahalo nui loa me ke aloha,