Canary Troubles

Remember the Hawaiian telescope issue that repeatedly comes up during public comments at Regents meetings? Apart from mentions in public comments at the Regents, our most recent post about the issue was just a year ago.* 

The Regents themselves discussed the project - in which UC is involved - back in July 2020, at the behest of then-Chair John Pérez.** In essence, some native Hawaiians oppose the project and blocked construction. Hawaiian government officials seem to want the project - the telescopes on Mauna Kea are a source of a significant inflow of funding - but seem paralyzed about making any decisions in the face of opposition. Complicating the issue is the possibility of an alternative site in the Canary Islands. 

At one point in the July 2020 hearing, one of the astronomers who testified said the Canary Island site was not as good as Hawaii, but that it was "90%" as good - whatever that meant. To a former politician such as Regent Pérez, however, getting 90% of what you want as a compromise sounds pretty good. Nevertheless, there the matter rested; the Regents have since made no decision about pulling out of Hawaii.

What didn't come across during the July 2020 Regents' session on the telescope was that there is also local controversy about, and opposition to, the Canary Island site. Now there is a Spanish court decision blocking a potential Canary Island site:

Spain judge nixes backup site for disputed Hawaii telescope

Aritz Parra, APNews, 8-25-21

MADRID (AP) — A Spanish judge in a decision cheered by environmentalists has put a halt to backup plans for the construction of a giant telescope in the Canary Islands — eliminating at least for now the primary alternative location to the preferred spot in Hawaii, where there have been protests against the telescope. Construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, on Hawaii’s tallest mountain, Mauna Kea, has been stalled by opponents who say the project will desecrate land held sacred to some Native Hawaiians.

Telescope officials had selected the alternate location near an existing scientific research facility on the highest mountain of La Palma, one of the Spanish islands off the western African coast, in the Atlantic Ocean. But an administrative court in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the Spanish archipelago, ruled last month that the 2017 concession by local authorities of public land for the tentative project was invalid. The ruling was dated on July 29, but only became public this week after local media reported about the decision. In the ruling obtained by The Associated Press, Judge Roi López Encinas wrote that the telescope land allocation was subject to an agreement between the Canary Astrophysics Institute, or IAC, and the telescope’s promoter, the TMT International Observatory (TIO) consortium.

But the judge ruled that the agreement was not valid because TIO had not expressed an intention to build on the La Palma site instead of at the Hawaii site. The judge also sided with the plaintiff, the environmental group Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción, in rejecting arguments by TIO’s legal team and the island’s government that the land concession was covered by an international treaty on scientific research. An official for the Canary Islands High Court said questions about the ruling could not be answered because other court officials in a position to answer the questions were on vacation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to be named in media reports. The island’s local elected government chief, Mariano Zapata, said it was “sad” that advocacy groups “are so occupied by administrative matters instead of environmental issues.”

“I wish we were all in the same boat with the intent of creating jobs in the La Palma island so it can keep being an international reference on scientific research,” Zapata said. His government estimated last year that the telescope would generate 500 permanent jobs and at least 400 million euros ($470 million) in investment.

Scott Ishikawa, a spokesperson for the consortium hoping to build the telescope, said that the consortium plans to appeal the ruling. “While we respect the court’s ruling in La Palma, we will pursue the legal process to retain La Palma as our alternative site. Hawaii remains our preferred location for TMT, and we have renewed our efforts to better connect with the Hawaii community in a meaningful and appropriate way,” he said in an email to The Associated Press...

Full story at https://apnews.com/article/europe-africa-business-environment-and-nature-hawaii-29a288462daf07ecd68a68d35530aecd.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/08/new-hawaiian-telescope-news.html. Use the search engine on this blogsite and the word "telescope" to find other material about the telescope.

**http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/07/listen-to-morning-session-of-regents_31.html.