Hawaii sues oil giants for climate change damages
Hawaii has filed a lawsuit against major oil companies like Chevron, Shell and Aloha Petroleum, accusing them of contributing to the state’s climate change crisis.
HONOLULU (Island News) — The state is suing oil companies, including Chevron, Shell and Aloha Petroleum, for using fossil fuels that destroy Hawaii’s natural resources and cause devastating climate change in the islands.
Before the lawsuit was even filed, the Trump administration sued Hawaii and three other states in an attempt to block them from enforcing laws or filing complaints against the corporations the states believe are largely responsible for the climate crisis.
The states want oil companies to put billions of dollars into funds to pay for damages they say were caused by climate change, including the Lahaina wildfires.
Brandon Maka’awa’awa, Deputy Head of State at Nation of Hawaii, said, “We shouldn’t be putting corporations and profits over our people and land. We’re going to be the ones that have to suffer for the end result of all of these climate change things.”
In a statement, governor Josh Green said climate change ultimately led to more than a 100 lives lost and billions of dollars in damages in the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.
“This lawsuit that Governor Green and the Attorney General are moving forward with are really important, because it says for the first time that fundamentally, climate change is not our fault,” said Rep. Ikaika Hussey. “It’s not the fault of local people in Hawaii. It’s really the fault of a handful of corporations around the planet that have misled us for decades.”
The U.S. attorney general said the states wanting to hold big corporations responsible “threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security.”
“I’ve been wondering whether or not the right way to describe it is reckless,” said Richard Wallsgrove, Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Environmental Law Program. “It’s the federal government, the power of the federal government being used to protect private companies as a sort of protection racket for the fossil fuel industry.”
For native Hawaiians wanting to protect the aina:
“It’s crazy. I feel like we’re living in this weird world where the corporations are basically telling the government, the federal government, what to do. And I think it’s up to us here in Hawaii to stand up to that,” Maka’awa’awa added.