Experts say Hawaii’s Big Oil lawsuit is a strategic move to advance the Green New Deal nationwide.

from FOX News March 20, 2024 (excerpt)

… Consumer and legal experts told Fox News Digital they hope the U.S. Supreme Court will step in to avoid "compounding impacts on everyday Americans," should the case progress to "giant judgments" on oil corporations. 

O.H. Skinner, the CEO of Alliance for Consumers and former solicitor general of Arizona, told Fox News Digital in an interview the Honolulu suit is "a stalking horse for the Green New Deal, with lefty enclaves looking to strong-arm progressive lifestyle choices onto an otherwise unwilling public by targeting industries that have yet to fall in line with the progressive ideal."

"The hyper-ideological justices on the Hawaii Supreme Court seem to want to bankrupt fossil fuel companies and see this lawsuit as a magical key that unlocks unlimited power and a lot of money for progressive agendas," Skinner said. 

Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald, in his opinion rejecting the energy companies’ arguments, wrote, "Defendants knew of the dangers of using their fossil fuel products, ‘knowingly concealed and misrepresented the climate impacts of their fossil fuel products,’ and engaged in ‘sophisticated disinformation campaigns to cast doubt on the science, causes, and effects of global warming,’ causing increased fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, which then caused property and infrastructure damage in Honolulu." 

Fox News Digital reported last year that Recktenwald quietly disclosed in May that he presented for a course in collaboration with a little-known judicial advocacy organization funded by left-wing nonprofits, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). According to the ELI, the Climate Judiciary Project is designed to educate judges across the country on how to handle climate change litigation that comes before them.

"As the body of climate litigation grows, judges must consider complex scientific and legal questions, many of which are developing rapidly," CJP states on its website. "To address these issues, the Climate Judiciary Project of the Environmental Law Institute is collaborating with leading national judicial education institutions to meet judges’ need for basic familiarity with climate science methods and concepts."

Other justices on the state’s Supreme Court took shots at the U.S. Supreme Court and questioned its legitimacy. 

In a concurring opinion rejecting the energy companies’ petition, Associate Justice Todd Eddins wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court "could use a little Aloha," adding, "the Aloha Spirit inspires constitutional interpretation." 

Eddins in his concurrence also outlined a larger political argument against originalism, the philosophy behind a conservative interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, and why the country’s highest court should not be allowed to determine a case like this. 

Eddins cited Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the abortion case that overturned Roe v. Wade, and the landmark Second Amendment case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, writing, "a justice’s personal values and ideas about the very old days suddenly control the lives of present and future generations." 

Eddins wrote that the originalism on the Supreme Court "revives the value judgments" of "[t]he few white men who made laws and shaped lives during the mostly racist and misogynistic very old days." 

"I fear the Court self-inflicts harm, loses public confidence, and exposes itself to real criticisms about its legitimacy," Eddins wrote. 

Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna, who joined the unanimous decision against the oil companies, said in a speech last year, "Climate change is, in my view, the most important issue facing all courts in the world at this point. It’s an existential threat.”

Skinner said "Honolulu’s proverbial ‘spirit of Aloha’ assault here, if left unchecked, will actually bore a hole in the pockets of Americans as it marches across industry after industry, increasing the costs of food, cars, travel, and all the other basic building blocks of the modern American life at a pace that everyday Americans won’t be able to afford."…

read … Experts say Hawaii’s Big Oil lawsuit is a strategic move to advance the Green New Deal nationwide.