By Jennifer Cinco Kelleher
HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu is not just an effort to su fossil fuel companies to hold them liability for the harms of climate change, but the city’s lawsuits stand even more in line with similar lawsuits across the country. Tuesday’s hearing shows how these fights unfold in court.
In 2020, the Hawaiian capital sued major oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron, claiming that it had known nearly half a century that fossil fuel products could warm the planet and create climate-changing greenhouse gas pollution. The lawsuit also says companies are profiting from consumption of oil, coal and natural gas, deceiving the public about the role of products in causing the global climate crisis.
The Honolulu lawsuit denies businesses for rising sea levels around Oahu’s world-famous coastline. It also warns that hurricanes, heat waves and other extreme weather will become more frequent, with ocean warming that reduces fish stocks and kills coral reefs that tourists love to snorkel.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. Lawyers and media representatives from most companies did not immediately respond to emails or phone messages from the Associated Press seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Representatives of Conocophillips and Phillips 66 sent an email saying they had not commented on the pending lawsuit.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in state court for a defense motion claiming that the lawsuit should be dismissed as the state’s two-year restrictions law has expired. Honolulu’s claims are based on publicly known allegations for decades, the summary judgment defense movement said.
“The issue of climate change and how we tackle it has long been part of public debate and ongoing scientific research and debate,” a Shell spokesperson said in an email. “There are over 50 years of huge records of media articles, scientific journals and government reports that make this clear. The suggestion that the plaintiffs somehow didn’t know about climate change is simply unreliable.”
While the case is still far from trial, it is much closer than about 30 similar cases nationwide brought by other states, cities and counties. The lawyers’ discussions and judge questions on Tuesday give a sense of how both parties present their case, said Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty member of the Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
“The first exam in any of these cases will be very important,” he said. “It can even attract national or global attention, as oil companies still didn’t have to get up and protect themselves in court.”
The Honolulu case reached this hearing stage. This is because the Hawaii Supreme Court rejected an motion to dismiss it, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to accept it.
Meanwhile, a similar lawsuit by Maui County, in which a massive wildfire burned most of Lahaina nearly two years ago, killing 102 people, is pending.
Hawaii filed a similar lawsuit in May despite the US Department of Justice suing over a plan to take legal action against fossil fuel companies.
The Hawaii Attorney General’s Office filed a motion last week to stop the Department of Justice’s federal lawsuit. “By continuing this case, the US will grant a license to exercise federal courts as a weapon against non-federal lawsuits that the incumbent presidential administration dislikes.”
The Honolulu case attracted the attention of Naomi Oleske, a well-known Harvard University professor of science and history. He has submitted a declaration of motion opposed to the defendant’s motion for summary judgment.
Oreskes has elicited similarities between the fossil fuels and the tobacco industry. “The fossil fuel industry, its allies and agents have created an organized campaign to cultivate and maintain doubts about artificial global warming and prevent meaningful behavior,” she writes. “They did this by influencing consumers and the general public.”
Just before the youth group’s lawsuit against Hawaii’s transportation sector, both sides resolved the case last year and agreed to an ambitious requirement that zero greenhouse gas emissions be achieved in all modes of transport from 2045 onwards.
Original issue: July 29, 2025, 2:37pm
