From Maui, Brad Parsons writes about the Superferry canceling again due to waves:

"I was thinking about that yesterday, the first day of the Legislative session and the barge breaks again...kind of like when it broke a few hours after Cardoza's last ruling. How fitting...I honestly believe the Hawaiian spirits are at work here.

The speeches yesterday in the Legislature talked about the need for the people to learn lessons from the Superferry issue. The lessons that need to be learned are by members of the Legislature, the Executive branch (DOT and Gov.), and the lower courts...the people had it right...our government are the ones who messed this up. And, yes, the DOT, Gov., and Legis., should get as much or more attention on this than HSF."

Brad has been keeping track of the number of cars really using the Superferry (as opposed to the bogus numbers HSF reports). You can see his daily photos with vehicle counts here.

I attended the Governor's advisory meeting last night to see the unveiling of the 2030 Kahului Harbor Plan. Lingle wants to spend in excess of $300,000,000 to build docks for the Superferry and cruise ships. While destroying the surfing breaks and possibly dredging the canoe race course out of existence, it will require raising dock fees (tariffs) for all users including our freight.

Bottom line, We on Maui will be paying a lot more for the 80% of our food and goods that come in through the harbor in order to subsidize the cruise ships which dump sewage into the ocean and the whale-killing Superferry.

I testified that separating freight and passengers was essential...but that we should separate the passenger ships right out of Kahului Harbor. Thus saving us a third of a billion dollars.

Alternatively, let the cruise ships and Superferry do as Matson did when it needed a new dock. Matson fronted the money and is being paid back by tariff offsets. That way the business needing the dock bears the risk instead of the taxpayers.

A man who works with the cruise ships testified that the cruise ships don't even want to dock at Kahului Harbor because it is often cloudy and there are no tourist amenities. I'm wondering if the only reason NCL is docking there is because they get a sweetheart deal with a big break in their dock fees.

So with NCL removing one of their ships from Hawai'i service and Superferry failing dismally to get sufficient passengers, it's likely both will be out of business before their dock is built.

Makes sense to have them front the money and take the risk instead of the taxpayers. Before we saddle ourselves with huge increases in freight costs, let's make sure they'll be around to pay us back.