Cease building in Puna makai

[MyManao]

The insurance companies only insure what’s already approved to be built.

I think the point is...

In 1990 Kalapana burned and all the private insurers said they would not underwrite investments in areas where lava inundation is likely. As a consequence the 1991 State Legislature created the Hawaii Property Insurance Agency (HPIA).

In theory HPIA was intended to be a nonprofit insurance carrier of “last resort,” formed to provide property insurance to those who lived in Lava Zones 1 and 2 and couldn’t get insurance on the private market. In practice it spawned major development where had the state not stepped in there would have been far less, as the investments in those areas would require cash, and self insurance, rather than conventional financing.

In other areas of high risk the state does not step in and require private industry give special consideration to a select group. They do not provide the same for those in flood zones. But here, for lava zones they flex their muscle and demand, under the threat of losing the right to do business in the state if one does not comply, that policies be written in LZ1 and LZ2.

As such the state is creating a situation in which people invest their lives, and plant and grow their dreams, in areas that are likely, documentable likely, to be inundated by lava. 

I can not imagine that this qualifies as good governance.

I wouldn't agree if the state said folks had to abandon, or could never live in, the area either. But, imo, to have responded to the private sector's response to Kalapana by creating HPIA, which in turn created a situation where hundreds of people lost so much, is the wrong approach to living with our active volcanoes.

I think HPIA should never have been formed, and it certain needs to go. Our system of governance is supposed to find a line between our freedoms and the management of our affairs, and in this instance I think they failed. And the 2018 eruption is a map of that failure.

I also think our government will continue to fail in this regard. Not so much because of incompetence but more because they are not comfortable facing up to their own complicity in creating the situation in the first place. All the way back to the creation of our subdivisions lies an almost endless collection of stories of self serving politicians more concerned with their own profits than actual governance. Nobody wants to air that much dirty laundry.

For further reading on the matter I suggest..

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/390...ster-worse

and, of course, Land and Power in Hawaii really is a must read for anyone interested in such matters...

https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/land-an...tic-years/