HONOLULU — Honolulu is not alone in its effort to sue fossil fuel companies to hold them accountable for climate change harms, but the city’s lawsuit is further along than similar litigation across the country. A hearing on Tuesday will indicate how these fights play out in court.
In 2020, Hawaii’s capital city sued major oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron, arguing they knew for nearly half a century that fossil fuel products create greenhouse gas pollution that warms the planet and changes the climate. The companies have also profited from the consumption of oil, coal and natural gas while deceiving the public about the role of their products in causing a global climate crisis, the lawsuit says.
Honolulu’s lawsuit blames the companies for the sea level rise around the island of Oahu’s world-famous coastline. It also warns that hurricanes, heatwaves and other extreme weather will be more frequent, along with ocean warming that will reduce fish stocks and kill coral reefs that tourists love to snorkel over.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages. Attorneys and media representatives for most of the companies didn’t immediately respond to emails and phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment on the lawsuit.
ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 representatives sent emails saying they don’t comment on pending litigation.
A hearing is scheduled in state court on Tuesday for a defense motion that argues the lawsuit should be dismissed because the state’s two-year statute of limitations expired. Honolulu’s claims are based on allegations that have been publicly known for decades, the defense motion for summary judgment says.
“The issue of climate change and how to tackle it has long been part of public discussion and ongoing scientific research and debate for many decades,” a Shell spokesperson said in an email. “There is a vast public record of media articles, scientific journals and government reports for well over 50 years that make this clear. The suggestion that the plaintiffs were somehow unaware of climate change is simply not credible.”
While the case is still far from trial, it’s much closer than some 30 similar lawsuits nationwide brought by other states, cities and counties. Lawyer arguments and the judge’s questions on Tuesday will give a sense of how both sides will present their cases, said Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty director of the Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
“The first trial in any of these cases will be very significant,” he said. “It will get a large amount of nationwide or even global attention because the oil companies have not yet had to take the stand and defend themselves in a trial.”
Honolulu’s lawsuit has reached this hearing stage, partly because the Hawaii Supreme Court denied motions to dismiss it, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take it on.
Meanwhile, a similar lawsuit by Maui County, where a massive wildfire nearly two years ago burned down most of Lahaina and killed 102 people, is on hold.
The state of Hawaii has also filed a similar suit, despite the U.S. Department of Justice in May suing Hawaii and Michigan over their plans for legal action against fossil fuel companies, claiming their climate actions conflict with federal authority and President Donald Trump’s energy dominance agenda.
Hawaii’s attorney general’s office filed a motion last week seeking to stop the Department of Justice’s federal lawsuit: “Allowing this case to proceed would give the United States license to wield the federal courts as a weapon against any litigation between nonfederal parties that an incumbent presidential administration dislikes.”
Honolulu’s lawsuit has drawn the attention of Naomi Oreskes, a prominent Harvard University science history professor, who submitted a declaration in a motion opposing the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.
Oreskes drew parallels between the fossil fuel and tobacco industries. “The fossil fuel industry and its allies and surrogates created an organized campaign to foster and sustain doubt about anthropogenic global warming and prevent meaningful action,” she wrote. “They did this by influencing consumers and the general public.”
Soon before a lawsuit by a group of youths against Hawaii’s transportation department was scheduled to go to trial, both sides settled the case last year, agreeing on an ambitious requirement to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions across all transportation modes no later than 2045.