In August 2011, George Pasha IV, the president of the California shipping company The Pasha Group, said a new law the Hawaii Legislature passed that put limits on who could ship cargo among the Islands would put a local division of the company, Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines, out of business.
Pasha’s prediction came true Jan. 1 when the company halted its interisland shipping service.
Act 213 put stringent new rules in place for the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission as it decided whether to distribute licenses to shipping companies. Among the requirements, Act 213 forbids the commission from issuing a license to a carrier unless it could prove that other carriers — in this case, Young Brothers Ltd. — weren’t meeting the state’s interisland shipping demands.