For years, California was the poster child of environmental overkill. That distinction now belongs to Hawaii. About 2,400 miles away from the West Coast and with no oil fields of its own, the Aloha State depends on imports to fuel its tourism industry, run its grid and make everyday life possible.
But Hawaiis oil dependence hasnt kept it from waging an all-out litigation war against energy companies. Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez along with Honolulu and Maui are suing the oil and gas industry for untold billions based on alleged climate-related harms. These sweeping cases reveal the political corruption that infects Hawaiis legal system and demands federal investigation and pre-emption of Hawaiis shakedown of the energy industry.
First, the lawsuits conveniently exclude the states sole refinery and leading supplier of gasoline and jet fuel, Par Pacific and its subsidiary Par Hawaii. According to campaign finance filings, its executives have donated to the states Democratic leaders, including Gov. Josh Green. But under Hawaiis theory of the case, the energy refiners in the state, not to mention its energy users, produce the emissions that most directly harm the islands environment.
Second, the have repeatedly rejected identical cases, citing longstanding precedent putting the federal government in charge of setting interstate and international emissions standards.
But prominent Aloha State judges, including those involved in the Honolulu case, have collaborated with the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and its Climate Judiciary Project (CJP), which calls the impartiality of the state judiciary into question. The organizations share staff and donors with Sher Edling LLP, the law firm representing Honolulu and numerous other local governments suing energy companies over climate change.Â
The close relationship between ELI and climate lawyers didnt stop three justices on the Hawaii Supreme Court from participating in ELI-CLP sponsored events. One of them, Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald further directed his clerk to help an expert working on the climate cases to understand the Daubert standard “used by judges to assess an expert witnesss scientific testimony” and previously provided a “helpful” primer to Kerry Emmanuel, an expert retained by the climate plaintiffs in another case against the energy industry.Â
Despite these behind-the-scenes efforts, Chief Justice Recktenwald authored the Hawaii Supreme Courts opinion in the Honolulu case, which delivered a major win for the climate plaintiffs. One of the chief justices colleagues displayed his bias even more overtly in a concurrence that suggested the U.S. Supreme Court should reach the same outcome regardless of the text of federal law because the high court “could use a little Aloha.”
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Third, after the Hawaii Supreme Court declined to dismiss the Honolulu case, the presiding lower has let the plaintiffs attorneys use discovery to conduct a fishing expedition in service of a broader anti-energy lawfare campaign. Hawaiis courts should have suspended their proceedings while the found
