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Care for ʻĀina Now

From Civil Beat:

Hawaiʻi has officially become the first U.S. state to enact a so-called “green fee” — a charge added onto hotel room stays and other short-term visits to help protect the local environment and address the growing impacts of climate change.

Gov. Josh Green signed the fee into law Tuesday after years of unsuccessfully urging the Legislature to pass it. Set to take effect next year, the fee could raise around $100 million annually, state officials estimate, a portion which will go toward’s Hawaiʻi’s response to future disasters similar to the 2023 Lahaina wildfire.

“It’s a historic piece of legislation. No other state has done something of this magnitude to have an impact fee that goes directly to deal with climate change,” Green said earlier this month once it was clear lawmakers would approve it at last. “We’ve always known we had to take on climate change, but we had to have a devoted revenue stream, a devoted source of real dollars.”

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