State Supreme Court Invalidates Permit for TMT Construction

FILE – In this August 31, 2015 file photo, a unidentified man opposed to the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope stands outside a base camp near the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island.

The Hawaii State Supreme Court on Wednesday invalidated a permit for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the state’s highest summit.

TMT International Observatory An artist’s rendering of the Thirty Meter Telescope.

The court ordered the matter be remanded to state Circuit Court “so that a contested case hearing can be conducted before the board or a new hearing officer, or for other proceedings consistent with this opinion”.

HONOLULU (AP) – The Hawaii Supreme Court Wednesday invalidated a permit awarded for the construction of one of the world’s largest telescopes on a mountain many Native Hawaiians consider sacred.

Rocks and boulders were pulled onto the road to prevent access and eventually, TMT officials called the effort off and turned their crews around citing concerns for their safety.

What was to become one of the world’s largest and most advanced telescopes may not be built at all.

According to the court, the Board of Land and Natural Resources should not have given the project permission to go forward before it had the chance to hear the side of a group petitioning against its approval. Hawaii’s Supreme Court today ruled that a state planning board acted improperly in 2011 in granting a permit for TMT construction before it completed a hearing on objections to the permit.