Hawaii climate lawsuits against energy companies reveal leftist agenda
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For years, California was the poster child for environmental pollution. That distinction now belongs to Hawaii. Located about 2,400 miles from the West Coast and with no oil fields of its own, the Aloha State depends on imports to fuel its tourism industry, operate its grid and make daily life possible.
But Hawaii’s dependence on oil hasn’t stopped it from waging an all-out lawsuit war against energy companies. Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez together with in Honolulu and Maui are suing the oil and gas industry for billions of dollars based on claims of climate-related harm. These far-reaching lawsuits expose political corruption affecting Hawaii’s legal system and demand federal investigation and preliminary intervention into the collapse of Hawaii’s energy industry.
First, the lawsuits conveniently exclude Par Pacific and its subsidiary Par Hawaii, the state’s only refinery and a leading supplier of gasoline and jet fuel. His executives donated to the state’s Democratic leaders, including Gov. Josh Green, according to campaign finance filings. But Hawaii’s theory of the phenomenon is that the state’s energy refineries and energy users produce the emissions that most directly harm the islands’ environment.
Second, courts in other all-blue jurisdictions have repeatedly rejected the same cases, citing longstanding precedents that task the federal government with setting interstate and international emissions standards.
THE CLIMATE JUSTICE GROUP HAS DEEP TIES WITH JUDGES AND EXPERTS WHO JOIN LITIGATIONS AGAINST CLAIMS OF NEUTRALITY
The fight against climate change has moved into state courts in places like Hawaii, where lawsuits are being fought against energy companies. (Barbara Alper/Getty Images)
But prominent Aloha State judges, including those involved in the Honolulu case, have joined forces with the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and its Climate Judicial Project (CJP) in questioning the impartiality of the state judiciary. The organizations share staff and donors with the law firm Sher Edling LLP, which represents Honolulu, and many other local governments that have sued energy companies over climate change.
The close relationship between ELI and climate lawyers did not prevent three justices on the Hawaii Supreme Court from attending ELI-CLP-sponsored events. One of them, Chief Judge Mark Recktenwald, instructed his clerk to help an expert who works on climate cases understand the Daubert standard “used by judges to evaluate an expert’s scientific testimony,” giving a “helpful” head start to Kerry Emmanuel, an expert previously retained by climate plaintiffs in another case against the energy industry.
Despite these behind-the-scenes efforts, Chief Justice Recktenwald wrote the Hawaii Supreme Court’s decision. idea in Honolulu The case that brought a big win for climate plaintiffs. One of the chief justice’s colleagues made his bias even clearer in a concurrence that suggested the U.S. Supreme Court should reach the same conclusion regardless of the text of federal law because the high court “might need some Aloha.”
THE SUPREME COURT SHOULD FREEZE CLIMATE DAMAGES IN OUR ENERGY SECTOR
Third, after the Hawaii Supreme Court refused to dismiss the Honolulu case, the lower state court presiding allowed plaintiffs’ lawyers to use discovery to stage a fishing expedition in service of a broader anti-energy legislative campaign. The central legal question underlying nearly 30 identical cases—whether state tort claims against energy companies for global climate change should belong in federal or state court—is currently being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Suncor Energy v. Hawaii courts should have put their case on hold while the Boulder County case was reviewed.
Outside of Hawaii, judges in California, New Jersey and elsewhere have paused climate cases for obvious reason. The Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions each year but agrees to hear only a tiny fraction of them. In the extremely rare case that a case reaches the nation’s highest court, there is a distinct possibility that the justices will set a new standard or eliminate entire categories of claims altogether.
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Honolulu is effectively racing to obtain maximum document production and hundreds of sworn executive depositions before a ruling could potentially narrow or eliminate the legal basis for all of these cases. A court-appointed special custodian ordered energy companies to rummage through their files containing 75 years of documents related to the production and sale of energy products worldwide.
Aside from the huge cost that this paperwork will bring to companies, the documents will not prove that the consumer has been deceived. This requires the company to hide information that the public does not yet know. Consumers have been aware of global warming for decades but have chosen to burn fossil fuels at the same levels as 50 years ago.
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More information about climate change would be helpful, but it’s not convincing enough to get most of the world to stop demanding the energy they need to do the things they want, like cool their homes, power their devices, and maybe even vacation in Hawaii. That’s assuming the Aloha State hasn’t mobilized its travel industry to aid and abet oil and gas producers by then.
Michael Toth is director of research at the Civitas Institute.
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