Hawaii Ferry Halted for Environment Study
The first giant fast ferry carrying cars and passengers among the Hawaiian Islands may not resume service until the state fully gauges its environmental effects, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

The decision is expected to throw the future of the five-year-old project to the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, has promised to convene the Legislature to consider bills to let the ferry company operate until the study, expected to take years, is completed.

“It’s her administrative blunder that got us into this mess,” said the State Senate majority leader, Gary L. Hooser, Democat of Kauai. “To put that blunder in our lap and expect us to fix it, that’s just not going to happen.”

Ms. Lingle has strongly supported the project. In 2005, the State Transportation Department granted the company, Hawaii Superferry, an exemption from a full environmental impact statement based on a loophole in state law.