HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0377.658 2024-2026COUNTY CLERK
COUNTY OF HAWAI,
Hawai'i County Council
Wednesday, September 3, 2025 9:OOAM 2025 SEP -2 trl 11= 29
RE: Strong Support of Resolution 234-25
Dear Chair Inaba, Vice Chair Onishi and Members of the Council,
Thank you for your unanimous support of Resolution 234-25 at the August 19, 2025 meeting of
the Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural Resource Management. Protecting
Pdhakuloa is protecting our future —our land, our culture, and our children's inheritance.
The only opposition to this resolution came from commerce -based organizations, so I'll focus on
economy and commerce. The costs of the military's presence at PTA far outweigh the supposed
"benefits."
We should be cautious of organizations that tout "economic benefits" of militarism. The
Chamber of Commerce HawaiTs Military Affairs Council (MAC) is not a neutral voice. From
2015-2019, it received nearly half a million dollars in state funds to promote HawaiTs defense
economy. In 2021, another $645,000 funded the Hawaii Defense Alliance, and in 2023 the
Department of Defense awarded $3.2M to DBEDT to advance the same mission. Millions in
public money have been spent not on communities, but on manufacturing consent for militarism.
This funding doesn't just move money —it shapes the narrative. Chambers and officials may
praise stewardship, but the facts say otherwise. The Army's own environmental review at PTA
was rejected by the Board of Land and Natural Resources in May 2025 for failing to meet
cultural, environmental, and constitutional standards.
It is one thing for organizations to be paid to promote the defense industry. It is another for them
to pose as bridges between military, business, and government while excluding the most
important voice: the community.
The primary difference between a military partnership and a military occupation is consent.
Hawai'i Island residents did not choose to have an economic reliance on militarism nor to
continuously invest taxpayer dollars in this way. Military infrastructure and spending flow
because the U.S. seized and leases lands in a strategic location. In that sense, the "economic
benefits" we receive are not gifts but byproducts of imposed control. Our local economy
has been skewed toward military needs at the expense of community priorities.
In 2020, chambers of commerce publicly praised the Army's environmental stewardship,
endangered species management, and archaeological site protection. Yet for the entire time
they have occupied PTA, the Army has given the people of Hawai'i NO indication they will ever
be good stewards.
Let us keep watch on who supports the military over community and small businesses. The
Chamber of Commerce Hawai'i Military Affairs Council (MAC) has consistently prioritized
Comm.
Ref. To:
Ref. Date P - 3 2025
military interests over community safety. In 2019 MAC supported renewal of Department of
Health permits for the Red Hill storage facility, despite a 2014 leak that had already warned of
contamination risks. From 2015-2022, MAC opposed seven water protection bills that could
have prevented the 2022 disaster when 90,000 Honolulu residents were poisoned by jet fuel in
their water. Let's not repeat that mistake with PTA.
What gets counted as economic or community benefit must also include hidden costs: nearly
one veteran suicide per hour in the U.S., sex trafficking and domestic abuse linked to military
communities, wildfires at PTA, generational trauma, health impacts, and long-term dependence.
This is not an economy rooted in entrepreneurship or self -determined growth, but one distorted
by occupation, leaving Hawai'i vulnerable when either the collective conscience or federal
budgets shifts.
Hawai'i Island's military economy is not voluntary or equitably beneficial. It is a structural
dependency imposed by force. Military dollars are not support for HawaiTs economy, but
compensation that masks the deeper costs of dispossession and displacement, environmental
and cultural desecration, and a system founded on violence and war, repackaged as economic
development and progress. Further, to profit from militarism and war is to tie our destiny to
global conflict, making us complicit in violence far from our shores, surrendering our values for
those of the U.S. military.
Thank you for supporting Resolution 234-25. It signals that Hawai'i County will no longer accept
unilateral military decisions that compromise our communities or values. HawaiTs economic
future must be grounded in accountability, stewardship, and community consent.
Tanya Yamanaka Aynessazan and 'ohana
Hilo, Hawai'i
Some Key References:
HawaiTs Defense Economy A multi -phased project managed by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism
(DBFDTI and funded by the Department of Defense Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (,QL=)
The Chamber of Commerce Hawaii's Military Affairs Council (MAC) was selected by the Hawaii Department of Economic
Development and Tourism (DBEDT) to establish the Hawaii Defense Alliance
Managed by the Hawaii Defense Alliance and supported by Hawaii congressional delegates, the Pacific Intelligence Innovation
Initiative (P31) is committed to supporting economic development in Hawaii by creating jobs and opportunities for Hawaii's students,
businesses and military.
https://www.hawalitribune-heraid.com/2020/11 /01 /opinion/many-reasons-to-support-pohakuloa-tmining-area/
Confused about the timeline for the Red Hill fuel storage facility and contaminated water2 Read this
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