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Editor’s note: The writer is a Democratic candidate for the Hawaii House of Representatives, District 49.

By passing , our Legislature undermined the will of the people of Hawaii and has once again put the need of corporations over the needs of our community.

It has also undermined the Hawaii State Constitution, insuring that the state will fail to discharge its duty to the people of Hawaii under the Public Trust Doctrine, and established the objectionable rule that resources need not be shared.

Article XI, Section 1, of the Hawaii Constitution requires that the state protect natural resources, including water, and promote the development of such resources in a manner consistent with their conservation. Moreover, it provides: All public natural resources are held in trust by the State of the benefit of the people.

Despite the clear mandate of our constitution to administer resources with the goal of conservation and the duty to make sure that natural resources will benefit the people of Hawaii, our lawmakers have inexplicably chosen to create holdover property interests in our natural resources for corporations at the expense of the people.

Judge Rhonda Nishimura properly found that the Department of Land and Natural Resources had consistently violated Hawaii law by issuing to holdover tenants temporary permits to divert Maui streams. The practice of issuing temporary permits which were apparently renewed each year with little fanfare began in 2001 and continued through 2014, which contradicts the temporary nature of such permits.

When Judge Nishimura’s ruling created a question about the right of Alexander & Baldwin to control Maui water, members of our state House crafted legislation that inappropriately preserved the company’s control of water on Maui even though A&B no longer had an agricultural need for the diverted water, and even though there is very little likelihood that allowing diversion to continue will benefit the people.

While HB 2501 is troubling as a policy of our state, this is not just about Alexander & Baldwin, nor the current efforts of our Legislature to facilitate its unwarranted diversion of Maui water. HB 2501 exposes the truth that industry demands are a priority, even at the expense of individuals. Our Legislature admits, with its passage of HB 2501, that natural resources are for companies, not individuals. Corporate control of our land and water will not be reversed this year.

By passing HB 2501 our Legislature failed to abide by the public trust doctrine and has rejected traditional Hawaiian notions of fairness and the modern concept of sustainability.