(The Center Square) – Hawaii recently reached a settlement in a unique legal dispute with the state that requires the state to implement climate change initiatives through court orders, setting a potential blueprint for lawsuits in other states.
Thirteen young people, including at least one as young as nine years old, filed suit against the Hawaii Department of Transportation in June 2022. They said the Department of Transportation must do more to protect the state and its future from climate change.
The state had to spend $3 million to settle the lawsuit. The money was “well spent” to avoid a trial that was supposed to begin on June 24, the attorney general’s office said.
The settlement includes a roadmap for the tasks the Department of Transportation must complete under the court order. That includes creating a greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan for the Hawaii Department of Transportation, which could cost the state more. The plan includes just one price tag: $40 million for public electric car charging stations and charging infrastructure for all state and county vehicles by 2030.
The agreement includes a dispute resolution component that could resolve disagreements out of court, but Hawaii’s First District will monitor the settlement until 2045 if Hawaii has not met its zero-emissions goals.
The Hawaii Department of Transportation must receive “sufficient funds” from the Hawaii Legislature, but the agreement does not specify a specific amount for the other requirements.
Gov. Josh Green acknowledged that it would not be cheap or easy. He said the court order would help him if he had to go to the Legislature and say, “Look, we have to do this.”
“We have these policies in mind, but we lack the tools that the legislature provides us,” Green said. “We don’t often have the absolute requirement of the courts to do certain things, so an agreement like this creates certain safeguards.”
For two years, the governor pushed for the introduction of a $25 tourist tax, but it was not passed in parliament.
“Every year, 10 million people come to Hawaii,” Green said. “Can you imagine if we humbly and successfully asked people to pay $25 when they arrived in the state? That would be $250 million a year to fund the bike lanes, plus advanced analysis of our carbon footprint through the technologies we use, money for bonds to fund important protections against coastal erosion.”
Thomas Yamachika, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii, told The Center Square, “there’s going to be some effort” in finding money to implement the settlement’s initiatives. Lawmakers passed tax breaks this year to increase the standard income tax deduction in odd-numbered years and lower tax rates for all tax brackets in even-numbered years. It’s possible those tax cuts could be “rolled back,” Yamachika said.
Truth in Accounting, an institute that conducts an annual financial analysis of the 50 states, told The Center Square that Hawaii already has $11 billion in debt.
“The government has no money left to spend on this kind of settlement,” said Sheila A. Weinberg, founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting. “To fund this settlement, taxes must be raised or benefits must be cut. The other option is to further underfund pensions and retiree health care.”
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Hawaii is the first state to settle a climate change lawsuit, but it may not be the last. The case could set a precedent for other states where young people have filed lawsuits over climate concerns, according to an opinion piece by Cara Horowitz, executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change, and Evan George, the institute’s communications director.
“Many defendants facing climate litigation — including, notably, Hawaiian officials in the early stages of this case — often protest that climate policy should be made by lawmakers, not judges,” Horowitz and George said in the opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times. “This groundbreaking settlement shows that courts can hold policymakers accountable when they fail to keep their promises.”
