A judge cleared the way for the Hawaiian government to restart the approval process for building the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on top of a dormant volcano.
Riki May Amano, a retired state judge, decided on 26 July that the planning board could restart the approval process for building the telescope in Hawaii. The project had previously stalled because it had been mired in controversy and delays. This is because some locals consider the Mauna Kea volcano a sacred site, and have staged large-scale protests against the telescope project after Hawaii issued a permit to builders in 2011.
In December 2015, the Hawaii state supreme court ruled that the Board of Land and Natural Resources—which had issued the permit—had failed to adequately consider opponents’ objections to the project. If the approval process fails again and if construction cannot begin by 2018, it is likely that the telescope will be built at an alternative site on Spain’s island of La Palma. If built, the $1.4-billion TMT would be the largest in the northern hemisphere.
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