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This Halloween, the Hawaii Supreme Court issued a blow against big oil corporations. Their decision allows for a jury of Hawaii residents to determine the current and future damages to Honolulu caused by the coordinated, decades-long disinformation campaign of oil companies to prevent climate action.

Since the lawsuit was filed in 2020, the defendants have tried to get Honoluluʻs case dismissed on a number of grounds. They argued that their oil businesses do not fall within Hawaii state court jurisdiction and that there is no public nuisance claim for a climate damages case under Hawaii law.

The highest court in our state has now rejected these arguments.

This victory brings us a little closer to having oil and gas companies pay their fair share, but it is only for damage to county property and infrastructure. Maui County has filed a similar lawsuit.

Neither address costs to the state of Hawaii for damage to highways, harbors and other state infrastructure due to sea level rise; for loss of marine resources due to ocean acidification and ocean warming; for the need to air condition our schools, libraries and other state buildings; for the monumental costs of recovering from more frequent and more intense disasters such as the fire that devastated Lahaina; and more.

It is now time for the state of Hawaii to file their own lawsuit. The progress of the Honolulu case in Hawaii courts and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have set a very helpful precedents for a state case. It is now clear that such a case can indeed be heard in state court.

Also, the highest court in the state has set a precedent for other cases with similar tort claims against the same defendants for the same purposeful climate deception.  

The Hawaii Office of Attorney General actually has more legal avenues than the county to hold bad actors accountable, especially with regard to the consumer protection statute. In addition to suing in order to be made whole for property and infrastructure damage like the county has, the state can also sue for deceptive practices which harm consumers.

There can be statutory fines and other relief ordered by the court for every proven instance of misleading advertisement or other unfair business practice, including an order forcing the businesses to stop disseminating misinformation about the role of their products play in climate change.

The government has the responsibility to fight for residents and hold bad actors accountable. Nine other state attorney generals have filed suits so far.

The attorney general’s office has filed briefs in support of both the Honolulu and Maui cases. They have communicated that they are not opposed to a state lawsuit, but they are stretched thin, in part due to additional work from the Maui wildfires.

They need staff to engage and interface with a third party law firm who has developed expertise in this area, such as the one representing both Honolulu and Maui Counties.

We cannot afford to delay. We are already shouldering the costs of climate change.

Responding to the devastation and cost of the Lahaina fire will take away from many other important needs in our 2024 state budget. While the cause of the fire is still being investigated, we know the scale and damage were heightened by climate change.

Litigation takes time, so the sooner we start, the sooner compensation from oil companies can help Hawaii with the immense financial burdens of climate change.

A successful climate accountability lawsuit could also help us prepare to confront the impacts of the climate crisis head on, instead of only acting reactively after disasters devastate our communities.