Hawaii Takes on Big Oil as State Works to Address the Climate Emergency
In addition to suing oil companies for climate deception, Hawaii is encouraging insurance providers to take polluters to court, and is raising a first-in-the-nation “green fee” on tourists.
A shoreline erosion protection project sign at Kaanapali Beach Walk, Maui, Hawaii. Credit: Starr Environmental via Flickr, CC BY 2.0
While the US federal government under the Trump administration refuses to act on or even acknowledge the threat of climate change, the state of Hawaii is addressing it head-on. Ten years ago, Hawaii became the first state in the country to commit through legislation to reaching 100 percent renewable energy over the coming decades. Hawaii Governor Josh Green signed an executive order earlier this year to expedite renewable energy, and last year his administration reached a first-of-its-kind settlement in a youth climate lawsuit that sets the state’s transportation sector on a path towards full decarbonization. Hawaii courts, including in that youth case, have recognized the right to a life-sustaining climate system under the state’s constitution. And in 2021, Hawaii’s legislature passed a resolution declaring a climate emergency, becoming the first state to do so.
Now the Aloha State is taking further actions as it seeks to mitigate ballooning costs stemming from worsening climate-related disasters like the 2023 wildfires that torched Maui and killed over 100 people.
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez filed a lawsuit last week in state court against major oil and gas companies alleging they engaged in a decades-long campaign of deception regarding the climate risks of their products, which effectively delayed the transition away from fossil fuels and magnified the climate harms that communities are now experiencing. The lawsuit – the tenth so far brought by a state against Big Oil – targets companies such as BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron as well as the industry’s chief lobbying group the American Petroleum Institute.
“These defendants had a duty to warn people about the climate dangers associated with their products, or to mitigate those dangers. But they did neither of those things,” Lopez said in a statement. “Instead, they put profits ahead of people and facilitated the increased use of their dangerous products through decades of deceptive conduct.”
Hawaii is requesting relief in the form of an award of compensatory, punitive, and natural resource damages; civil penalties; and disgorgement of profits. Big Oil is currently facing more than two dozen similar cases brought by communities and states across the US, including the city and county of Honolulu and Maui County, Hawaii. If any of the lawsuits reach a jury trial and a favorable verdict for the government plaintiffs, then oil companies could be on the hook for substantial, potentially multi-billion-dollar, damage payments. Honolulu’s case is one of the furthest along procedurally and could get to trial within the next few years.
That prospect is terrifying for the big oil companies, and they are turning to their political allies in Congress and in the White House to try to dodge accountability. As the Wall Street Journal reported in March, oil and gas lobbyists are urging members of Congress to grant them immunity from climate liability, and company executives also discussed their mounting legal concerns in meeting with President Trump personally. Following that meeting, the president signed an executive order on April 8 directing the US Department of Justice to put a stop to state climate laws and lawsuits.
Last week, DOJ made its first moves following this command by suing four states, including Hawaii. The Trump administration launched preemptive strikes against both Hawaii and Michigan over their anticipated lawsuits targeting Big Oil – a move that legal experts say is bizarre and unprecedented. Hawaii did file its lawsuit the next day, but Michigan has not yet filed a complaint, and neither state had filed anything at the time DOJ brought its lawsuits on April 30. DOJ also sued New York and Vermont on May 1 challenging their polluters pay climate superfund laws.
Hawaii’s attorney general swiftly condemned the Trump administration’s attempt to block its lawsuit, calling it “illegal” and a “direct attack on Hawaiʻi’s rights as a sovereign state.”
Denise Antolini, an emeritus professor of environmental law at the University of Hawaii, said the Trump DOJ’s attack on Hawaii is “ludicrous.”
“I'm confident the federal district court [where the DOJ’s case was filed] will see through this juvenile attempt to bully Hawaii and undermine the rule of law,” she told me.
For more on Hawaii’s lawsuit and the Trump administration’s attempt to block it, see this news story I wrote for Inside Climate News.
Resolution Aims to Reduce Rising Insurance Costs
In addition to suing Big Oil directly for alleged climate deception, Hawaii is also now encouraging home insurance providers to take companies like Exxon and Shell to court to help recover costs stemming from extreme weather or climate disasters. The Hawaii legislature recently passed a resolution calling on insurance companies to limit rising insurance costs on state residents by pursuing what is known as subrogation claims against polluters that knowingly deceived the public about climate change risks. In passing this resolution, Hawaii has become the first state in the nation to formally endorse the position that the fossil fuel industry should be held responsible for contributing to the home insurance crisis, which is linked to the climate crisis.
“This insurance resolution passed by the Hawai’i legislature can be a model for communities across the country struggling with growing housing and cost of living crises that are being supercharged by climate disasters,” the Center for Climate Integrity, an advocacy organization supporting climate accountability efforts against polluters, argues.
Hawaii’s resolution explains the links between worsening climate disasters, problems obtaining or affording insurance, and fossil fuel companies that have lied about the risks of their products.
“Increasing climate-related disasters and risk have contributed significantly to the destabilization of the State's insurance industry, particularly in the property and casualty insurance sector, and has led to rising premiums and increasing non-renewal rates due to payouts for climate-related damages, including the devastating 2023 Maui wildfires,” the resolution states. It further asserts: “overwhelming evidence demonstrates that certain responsible polluters in the fossil fuel industry have been aware of their contribution to climate change for decades and have knowingly engaged in misleading and deceptive practices regarding the connection between their products and climate change, exacerbating climate-related harms.”
Those harms – from destructive floods and fires to catastrophic storms and deadly heatwaves – are very real, and very costly. Someone ultimately has to pay. And with these actions of the lawsuit and the resolution, Hawaii is officially calling for fossil fuel polluters to be held financially accountable for the damaging impacts of their products.
Legislation Levies “Green Fee” to Fund Climate Resiliency Measures
Furthermore, Hawaii will now be requiring its visitors and vacationers to help contribute to climate mitigation and environmental sustainability initiatives through a first-of-its-kind “green fee” applied to lodging and cruise fares. The Hawaii legislature has just passed a bill, championed by Gov. Green, that will raise the existing transient accommodations tax rate in the state by 0.75% for the purpose of generating additional revenue to go towards climate resiliency efforts such as shoreline protection and reducing wildfire risk.
“Given the devastation we saw on Maui in August of 2023, this measure is crucial because it will help us to deal with wildfire risk resulting from the climate change crisis,” Green said in a statement. “It is foundational to our ability to provide a safe and secure Hawai‘i for our children, our residents, our visitors and the environment.”
The legislation, which Green says is the first of its kind in the nation, will increase the transient accommodations tax (TAT) applied to hotel stays and other short-term lodging from 10.25% to 11%, and will extend the tax to cruise ship fares. Hawaii counties separately charge a TAT of 3% on lodging, meaning the total tax will rise to 14% statewide. The state says the fee increase will generate an estimated $100 million annually to help fund disaster relief and climate adaptation projects.
“The legislature finds that Hawaii is experiencing a climate emergency,” the first line of the legislation states. Hawaii, a state renowned for its beaches and natural beauty, recognizes that its economic sustainability (tourism is a significant driver of the state’s economy) is deeply intertwined with its environmental sustainability. Already 70% of Hawaii’s beaches have experienced erosion. Rising sea levels continue to threaten the islands’ shorelines and land. According to the state, “sea level rise is an existential threat to Hawaiʻi’s food security, water supply, economy, cultural heritage, and overall habitability.”
Hawaii is confronting this threat, not ignoring it or pretending it doesn’t exist. The “green fee” legislation “represents a generational commitment to protect our ‘āina (land),” Green says. “Hawai‘i is truly setting a new standard to address the climate crisis.”