A federal judge last month rejected the Trump administration’s effort to block Michigan from suing oil and gas companies for the ravages of climate change. Now, Hawaii is using that decision to bolster its fight against the administration’s push to quash its climate lawsuit.
In a brief filed last week with the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, state Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) noted that a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit seeking to prevent Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) from filing a climate liability challenge against the fossil fuel industry.
The brief comes as the court in Hawaii is considering a similar lawsuit brought by the administration against the Aloha State one day before it sued seven oil and gas companies and the American Petroleum Institute, alleging they failed to warn consumers about climate impacts associated with their products.
The Department of Justice sued Michigan and Hawaii last May in an attempt to prevent the states from filing climate liability lawsuits. DOJ also sued New York and Vermont, challenging the states’ “climate superfund” laws that seek to retroactively charge fossil fuel companies for the costs of global warming.
