Hawaii’s supreme court is expected to hear attempts by fossil fuel companies to dismiss a climate accountability lawsuit.
According to report, the hearing comes as the deadly fires in Maui capture global headlines.
Recall that In 2020, officials from the city and county of Honolulu sued eight fossil fuel giants who allegedly knew for decades about the climate dangers of burning coal, oil and gas, yet actively hid that information from consumers and investors. That misinformation campaign, the lawsuit argues, is a key reason Honolulu is facing the steep costs of abating climate damages from extreme weather events.
The case is only one of dozens filed against big oil since 2017 by states and municipalities over climate deception, which build on certain oil companies’ well-documented history of sowing doubt about climate science.
Another suit was filed by Maui county, where fires among the deadliest in US history have been blazing; that case was at one point consolidated with Honolulu’s.
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The fires impacting Hawaii “underscore the importance” of such litigation, said Denise Antolini, a retired University of Hawaii law professor and supporter of the plaintiffs.
“If the truth had been known about climate change, if the truth had been allowed to be known by big oil, Hawaii might have had a different future,” she said. Though the climate crisis was not the sole cause of the record-breaking fires, she added, it “set the table” for the destruction by fueling unusually hot, dry, flammable conditions.
Fires are just one form of extreme weather the Honolulu case says is plaguing the city and county. Other climate-related public nuisances, including flooding, sea level rise, heatwaves and drought, are together costing the city billions and putting residents and property at risk, the lawsuit says.
The defendants’ attorneys in the Honolulu case have not attempted to argue that climate change is not real or human caused. In fact, in a 2021 hearing, Chevron attorney Ted Boutrous, speaking for all of the suit’s defendants, said climate change is an “exceedingly important issue of utmost public concern”.
But the defendants have filed several motions to dismiss the case, two of which the Hawaii supreme court will hear on Thursday afternoon.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
