thirty meter telescope

An international consortium planning the Thirty Meter Telescope still prefers to site it atop the Big Island's Mauna Kea. But local protests may drive the project to the Canary Islands.

"Because TMT construction is not imminent, I am withdrawing the emergency proclamation effective immediately," Ige said on Tuesday following a decision to allow an extra two years for construction.

Native Hawaiians chained themselves to a grate in a road to stop work on the controversial Mauna Kea project on what they say is sacred land. Development is scheduled to begin this week.

The massive telescope with a nearly 100-foot mirror is set to be built atop 13,800-foot Mauna Kea, considered sacred land by some of the project's opponents.

After years of planning, Hawaii's Thirty Meter Telescope broke ground Tuesday. But a group interrupted the ceremony, angry about the telescope's location on a mountain held sacred by Native Hawaiians.