A federal judge in Hawaii has turned away the Trump administration’s effort to block Hawaii from filing a climate liability lawsuit against the oil and gas industry, finding the Justice Department failed to prove the federal government would be harmed by such a legal challenge.
The decision Wednesday by Senior Judge Helen Gillmor of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii marks the second loss in DOJ’s two attempts to prevent states from launching lawsuits that seek to compensate local governments for the costs of dealing with climate change.
DOJ sued Michigan and Hawaii last May as part of Trump’s efforts to target state climate change initiatives, arguing that the actions complicate U.S. energy policy. Both states went ahead with their climate lawsuits anyway, and a federal judge in January dismissed DOJ’s complaint against Michigan.
Gillmor echoed the Michigan decision, finding the federal government did not demonstrate a concrete injury.
