Hawaii to file lawsuit against fossil fuel companies
HONOLULU (KHON2) — As the legislative session that saw the State of Hawaii navigate an $800 million loss from the budget to pay for the Global Settlement for Lahaina wildfire victims comes to an end this week, Hawaii Governor Josh Green is turning attention to entities he thinks also need to pay up for the deadly and destructive disaster: fossil fuel companies.
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'We will be filing suit, I believe, on Thursday against the fossil fuel companies. They have to pay their share because climate change and the climate impact is definitely connected to generations of extra fossil fuel that's been burned.' Governor Green said.
The seven defendants in the Global Settlement include the State of Hawaii, County of Maui, Hawaiian Electric, Kamehameha Schools, West Maui Land Co., Hawaiian Telcom, and Spectrum/Charter Communications. They are slated to pay out a combined $4.037 billion. The hurricane-force wind-induced Lahaina wildfires in 2023 killed 102 people and caused billions in damage.
'Frankly, fossil fuels deserve to pay their share,' Governor Green said. 'We were able to weather all of those costs, but it would have been nice to have a couple of billion extra dollars from the fossil fuel companies. And I will be negotiating that over time. It's just the right thing to do.'
The governor did not say which fossil fuel companies will be named in the lawsuit.He also hopes that a bill to increase the Transit Accommodations Tax by 0.75% on travelers will help mitigate future wildfire risks through funding operations like fire breaks.
'Imagine if we had those fire breaks up before the wildfire occurred on August 8th, 2023, we wouldn't have had this $13 billion disaster.' Governor Green said.
Research from the University of Hawaii has shown that visitors are willing to pay more for Hawaii culture, sustainability, and locally grown food. Governor Green says the fee would be about $4 on a room that costs $500 a night.
'That will help us pay for all of the climate impact that the 10 million visitors come, and cause,' he said. 'We'll be the first state in the country to do it. We need these dollars to help replenish our beaches, fix our fire breaks, have a stabilizing effect on the insurance market after the wildfires. It will bring over a hundred million dollars to us every year. Plus, for every $4,500,000 that we bond, we can get a hundred million dollars of projects out of it if we need them.'
With uncertainty surrounding what climate change impacts will be in the islands in the future, Governor Green touts the financial malleability that the increase provides in responding to disasters, especially with uncertainty at the federal level and a law requiring the state to operate on a balanced budget.
'Say, for example, if we had a terrible hurricane that took out part of Waikiki, I could quickly fix it because we'll have these dollars. So that's another huge piece of legislation,' Governor Green said.
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Senate Bill 1396 passed out of conference committee and is expected to be voted on this week.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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