The oil and gas industry is citing President Donald Trump’s legal challenge that attempts to block Hawaii from filing a climate lawsuit as a reason to pause the state’s new climate lawsuit.
In a brief filed Thursday with the Circuit Court of Hawaii’s First Circuit, the oil and gas companies noted that while Hawaii last month filed its lawsuit against the industry for climate damages, the Justice Department had already filed a motion “seeking to enjoin precisely the sorts of claims the state has now brought.”
Resolution of the federal lawsuit, the companies’ brief argues, “may fully dispose of the lawsuit before this court.”
Even if Trump’s lawsuit does not “fully dispose” of the state’s lawsuit, the companies argue, it may “materially impact key issues in this case by, for example, limiting the scope of the state’s claims or illuminating key issues of federal law.”
