Honolulu Climate Suit Demonizes Energy, Seeks Huge Payday

The City and County of Honolulu launched its public nuisance climate change lawsuit against energy companies earlier this month and it’s become clear that there are ulterior motives beyond addressing the municipalities’ environmental challenges.

Going further than any other climate public nuisance lawsuit in the country, the Honolulu lawsuit is seeking not only money from energy companies to mitigate the effects of climate change, but also to “punish” what it calls the “wrongful conduct” of oil and gas companies and is seeking a “disgorgement of profits.”

The wrongful conduct? Producing the energy we all use every day.

It’s a clear strategy to try and get a court of law to rule that fossil fuel producers can be held retroactively liable for this behavior since there has never been a state or federal law that has made it illegal to produce, refine, or sell oil and natural gas products.

Fossil fuels have been the power source that made the United States the most powerful economy in the world and have supported the high standard of living we all enjoy, especially in Hawai’i.

Energy In Depth has previously reported on Honolulu’s lawsuit and its misguided attempt to address climate change in a way that will hurt the state’s tourism sector, its broader economy, and its taxpayers.

This new examination shows that Honolulu is going even further than the other municipalities who have sued energy producers (none of which have won their cases) in a blatant attempt to attack the industry.

Lawsuit Isn’t About Damages

In the introduction of the lawsuit, Honolulu describes its favored outcome as seeking financial relief from fossil fuel companies to address the effects of climate change. The complaint states:

“The City seeks to ensure that the parties who have profited from externalizing the consequences and costs of dealing with global warming and its physical, environmental, social, and economic consequences, bear the costs of those impacts, rather than the City, taxpayers, residents, or broader segments of the public.”

But this lawsuit isn’t about damages – it’s merely a foot-in-the-door tactic to get the campaign moving.

Honolulu is using the same public nuisance approach seen in other lawsuits around the country, but the ultimate goal is later revealed – demonizing energy production and punishing fossil fuel companies.

The True Goal is To Make Production Illegal

Well past the introduction, the lawsuit then states its true goal. In multiple instances in the complaint, the City and County of Honolulu make it clear it intends to go beyond other public nuisance lawsuits and claims that past production of fossil fuels should now be illegal.

Twice the complaint alleges that energy companies that produced fossil fuels acted “unlawfully.”

“Defendants, individually and in concert with each other, by their affirmative acts and omissions, have unlawfully annoyed and/or done damage to the City; worked hurt, inconvenience, and damage upon the City; annoyed and disturbed the City’s free use and enjoyment of its property and rendered its ordinary use uncomfortable; and injured the City in its enjoyment of its legal rights.” (emphasis added)

The suit makes “wrongful conduct” and “actual malice” claims four times.

“Defendants’ wrongful conduct as set forth herein was committed with actualmalice.” (emphasis added)

Honolulu then states another four times that they are seeking to “punish” energy companies for their practices, insinuating the illegality of their actions:

“Therefore, the City requests an award of punitive damages in an amount reasonable, appropriate, and sufficient to punish those Defendants for the good of society and deter Defendants from ever committing the same or similar acts.” (emphasis added)

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell echoed these allegations in an op-ed published in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

He again said that energy companies had committed “wrongful conduct” and that “holding oil and gas companies accountable for that behavior is what this lawsuit is all about.”

Disgorgement of Profits

If Honolulu really thinks it can hold fossil fuel producers retroactively liable for creating the energy we all need and use every day, then it has taken the next logical step by attempting to seize money that it believes was earned unlawfully.

Which is exactly what the lawsuit states near the end of the complaint when Honolulu begins looking for a “disgorgement of profits” from energy companies, implying that revenue was earned illegally and should be given to the city:

“City seeks judgment against those Defendants for:

… 5. Disgorgement of profits” (emphasis added)

Cornell Law School describes this as, “A remedy requiring a party who profits from illegal or wrongful acts to give up any profits he or she made as a result of his or her illegal or wrongful conduct. The purpose of this remedy is to prevent unjust enrichment.”

It’s an absurd claim. It is not currently, nor has it ever been illegal to produce fossil fuels in the United States, yet Honolulu not only wants to reverse history but make companies pay for their completely lawful and legitimate actions.

The suit claims “Defendants have known for more than 50 years that greenhouse gas pollution from their fossil fuel products would have a significant adverse impact on the Earth’s climate and sea levels.”

In other words, Honolulu hopes to seize every dollar of profit earned by over a dozen energy producers since 1970.

No Mention of Consumer Demands

The lawsuit also makes zero mention of the consumers and companies who purchase fossil fuel products every day to fill up the tank in cars, ships, and airplanes, and power homes and businesses.

Energy producers are meeting the demand of a population and a modern economy and it’s these consumers that are generating emissions.

While Honolulu attacks fossil fuel production with its lawsuit, its leaders forget that Hawaii is heavily reliant on these products because of its isolated location.

Without fossil fuels to power airplanes and ships, its tourism industry – which makes up a fifth of the state’s GDP – would completely collapse.

Likewise, it would greatly struggle to produce enough food, energy, and trade to sustain its populace and economy.

Read more at EID Climate