Senate committee advances bill letting Hawaii DOT assume some NEPA reviews to streamline projects

Senate Bill 3154, which would authorize the Hawaii Department of Transportation to assume certain responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for state highway and multimodal projects, moved out of committee on Feb. 13 after DOT testimony and brief member questions.

Robin Shishiro of the Hawaii Department of Transportation told the joint committee that assuming these responsibilities would let DOT work directly with federal resource agencies such as U.S. Fish and Wildlife and NOAA on environmental-clearance documents, rather than routing reviews through Federal Highways. “With this, we’d be able to work directly with a US Fish and Wildlife… NOAA, and for all the different resource agencies when we're doing our environmental clearance documents,” Shishiro said.

Committee members asked whether assuming NEPA responsibilities would allow DOT to do activities it could not do under current processes. Shishiro said the change would streamline consultations and allow DOT to coordinate directly with federal agencies during environmental clearance.

On a recorded voice vote, committee leadership recommended passing SB3154 with technical amendments; committee tallies in the hearing record show the motion adopted and committee chairs registered affirmative votes. The committee report includes passing the measure with amendments consistent with the DOT’s technical comments.

The committee placed the measure on a path for further referrals and implementation planning with the expectation DOT will work with federal partners to ensure procedural alignment.