A state judge just issued two final rulings, providing a sweep of favorable decisions to the City and County of Honolulu and the Board of Water Supply in their pioneering case seeking to hold large oil corporations accountable for decades of misrepresenting the scale and severity of climate change impacts from the use of their fossil fuel products. The four rulings—which were issued individually throughout February—together are the first in the nation for this kind of tort case seeking damages resulting from those disinformation campaigns. The suit will now proceed to trial in state court. The Honolulu City Council played a key role in 2020 by unanimously authorizing the suit seeking financial damages tied to flooding, extreme weather, sea level rise and other climate impacts that fossil fuel companies knew of for decades, but actively hid.
“This is a big and important win,” said City Council Chair Tommy Waters. “Not only in the sense of legal justice, but also for our local residents. We are facing incredible costs to move critical infrastructure away from our coasts and out of flood zones, and the oil companies that deceived the public for decades should be the ones helping pick up the tab for those costs—not our taxpayers. The reason these companies are fighting so hard to block this case is they don’t want even more evidence to come out. This is just like Big Tobacco, when they tried to take advantage of the public. I will not stand for this and will continue to fight for the preservation of our communities.”
In a series of rulings filed in February and culminating in the final orders posted late Monday, Hawaiʻi Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Crabtree denied multiple attempts by Chevron, Shell, Exxon, and other oil corporations to throw out the lawsuit. Judge Crabtree agreed with the City and County of Honolulu on multiple counts, ruling that the plaintiffs had shown enough evidence to allow the trial to proceed. Amidst the slate of victories for the City and County of Honolulu, Judge Crabtree did rule that BHP Group Ltd., an Australian mining company that had limited ties to fossil fuel sales in Hawaiʻi through a small subsidiary, would be released from the suit moving forward. That ruling will not affect the trial, which will begin to answer questions about how much the large oil companies knew, when they knew it, and to what lengths they went to cover up how much climate damage was going to occur.
“Large oil corporations have continued deceptive and reckless behavior despite knowing about the overwhelming threat to public health and climate change created by their fossil fuel products,” said Councilmember Radiant Cordero, who also chairs the Committee on Transportation, Sustainability and Health. “Their behavior demonstrates how large corporations value their own profit over public health and safety. With these rulings, the City and County of Honolulu is uniquely situated to create a precedent of accountability and justice that these endangering actions will not go unnoticed. They will be held accountable.”
The State of Hawaiʻi and Hawaiʻi State Association of Counties (HSAC) submitted amicus briefs supporting Honolulu in the hearings, defending the authority of the state’s courts to hear the lawsuit, and detailing the unique and catastrophic damages that each county potentially faces in the face of climate change impacts.
“I think we’re all waking up to the fact that our local governments are wrestling with massive problems associated with climate change impacts,” said HSAC President Mason Chock. “We’ve seen record rains, horrific landslides, and eroding coasts here on Kaua‘i—and while we’re moving as fast as we possibly can to shift to a clean energy economy now, it’s heartbreaking to hear that fossil fuel companies knew that these impacts were in the cards decades ago and not only said nothing, but actively undermined the scientists trying to warn us.”
Honolulu was the 13th jurisdiction in the nation to file this kind of case, but with these favorable rulings its case is now set to become the first in the country to move into a trial phase and begin the all-important process of discovery, where the oil companies must begin opening up files to show what they knew. At the same time, both Honolulu and Maui counties are beginning to track the increasing expenses impacting their budgets associated with climate change. Recently, a home on Oʻahu’s North Shore fell completely into the ocean and the State of Hawai‘i estimated that it would cost up to $90 million to relocate the Honoapi‘ilani Highway mauka, to get away from a coastline that is eroding and regularly floods.
The oil companies have repeatedly tried to remove these kinds of climate cases from state and local courts, where the climate impacts are being seen and felt in real time, and instead have federal courts weigh in. But U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson rejected that effort last year, a ruling that was reinforced by Judge Crabtree, who highlighted that Honolulu’s claim is rooted in state tort law around product liability and the irresponsible conduct of oil corporations as they misrepresented the safety of their product. “As this court understands it,” Judge Crabtree wrote in the decision, “Plaintiffs do not ask for damages for all effects of climate change; rather, they seek damages primarily for the effects of climate change allegedly caused by Defendants’ breach of long-recognized duties. Plaintiffs do not ask this court to limit, cap, or enjoin the production and sale of fossil fuels. Defendants’ liability in this case, if any, results from alleged tortious conduct, and not on lawful conduct in producing and selling fossil fuels.”
Separate from the court case and the debate over who should pay for climate impact costs, the City Council is continuing to move forward to address climate change through additional policies. The City Council recently approved a Climate Action Plan for Oʻahu, strengthened the Oʻahu General Plan to include several provisions increasing climate resilience, and has asked the Blangiardi Administration to present a bill to increase energy efficiency in buildings and reduce global warming emissions. With the Ukraine crisis boiling over, a third of Hawaiʻi’s current oil supply that comes from Russia is now potentially at risk—providing even more incentive to transition to clean and secure renewable energy on Oʻahu.