In December 1997, an international project agreement was signed at Kyoto for a collaborative study of the direct injection of carbon dioxide into the deep ocean. After a detailed site selection process, a site off the Kona coast of the big island of Hawaii was chosen in March 1998. The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, a quasi-governmental organization, would host the project, partially due to the impression that permitting would be fairly straightforward in the Laboratory's ocean research corridor. A Hawaii-based project general contractor was hired, steering and technical committees were formed, and a multi-year public outreach program was planned to engage the Hawaiian public about the carbon sequestration project. Before the outreach program was set to begin, the public learned of the project through an article in the local newspaper. A few members of the community organized a group, the Coalition Against CO{sub}2 Dumping, to protest the project. The group's concerns went well beyond the ocean environment and included sentiments ranging from "Not-In-My-Backyard" to native Hawaiian sovereignty and opposition to fossil fuels. Three major battles played out involving multiple agencies on the state and federal level. Each battle is reviewed although taken together the various battles can also be seen as a successful strategy of delay by the opposition. This paper summarizes key events in the project's evolution, discusses the lessons learned from the experience, and provides recommendations for dealing with public and institutional perceptions for future carbon sequestration projects.
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