Tom,
As far as I understand, this designation will affect both the TMT project and any new lease extensions for the existing telescopes. The master lease renewal process will likely trigger a supplemental environmental review since these facilities are located on state land. This designation will come into play during that process. The TMT will have to conduct a comprehensive Federalized Section 106 consultation/mitigation with Native Hawaiians. The latter hasn't happened with the state level based permitting that was conducted thus far. If the state level CDUP is ruled invalid because construction activity didn't start within the prescribed time frame, the TMT project will be dead for all intents and purposes. It will be too much of mountain to climb if they have to go through both the CDUP process again and do the Federalized Section 106 process.
As far as I understand, this designation will affect both the TMT project and any new lease extensions for the existing telescopes. The master lease renewal process will likely trigger a supplemental environmental review since these facilities are located on state land. This designation will come into play during that process. The TMT will have to conduct a comprehensive Federalized Section 106 consultation/mitigation with Native Hawaiians. The latter hasn't happened with the state level based permitting that was conducted thus far. If the state level CDUP is ruled invalid because construction activity didn't start within the prescribed time frame, the TMT project will be dead for all intents and purposes. It will be too much of mountain to climb if they have to go through both the CDUP process again and do the Federalized Section 106 process.