Hawaii Sues Oil Industry for Causing Climate Change—But Spares State’s

The State of Hawaii filed a major lawsuit against a dozen major oil companies and the nation’s largest oil industry group, accusing them of marketing and selling products that have caused higher temperatures, increased sea levels, more frequent flooding, coastal erosion, and more intense heat waves.

But Hawaii’s sprawling complaint—which prosecutors hope will force oil industry defendants to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages—excluded Houston-based Par Pacific and its subsidiary Par Hawaii, the oil company that operates Hawaii’s sole petroleum refinery and remains the state’s leading supplier of gasoline and jet fuel. That means prosecutors spared a company that is likely the single largest driver of the emissions in the state.

The complaint makes just one reference to Par’s Hawaii refinery, chastising ExxonMobil for supplying crude oil to the facility that is then “refined on Hawaii and distributed to consumers.” In addition to ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute, BP, Chevron, Shell, Equilon Enterprises, Sunoco, Aloha Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Woodside Energy Hawaii, BHP Hawaii are all listed as defendants.

Par and its executives, meanwhile, have a recent history of donating to Democratic campaigns in the state, something that may explain Par’s exclusion. Since 2018, Par and its executives have wired at least $45,100 to Hawaii Democrats, including Gov. Josh Green (D.), who received more donations from the company than any other politician in that time span, a Washington Free Beacon review of campaign finance filings found.

The decision to spare Par from Hawaii’s lawsuit raises serious questions about political favoritism and the role the company’s donations to Green and other state Democrats may have played. And, more broadly, it may delegitimize the lawsuit and Green’s own comments surrounding it.

“The climate crisis is here, and the costs of surviving it are rising every day,” Green said after his administration filed its complaint.

“The burden should fall on those who deceived and failed to warn consumers about the climate dangers lurking in their products,” he continued. “This lawsuit is about holding those parties accountable, shifting the costs of surviving the climate crisis back where they belong, and protecting Hawaii citizens into the future.”

As for the complaint itself, it blames defendants and their products for causing global warming, which leads to “rising temperatures and intense heat waves, extreme weather events, related disruptions to health and emergency services, and increased proliferation of vector-borne disease and pathogens.” It fails to explain how the oil industry defendants selected are more to blame than Par.

Overall, of the $45,100 Par and its executives gave to Hawaii Democrats since 2018, more than half came from the company’s political action committee. The only contributors to the company’s PAC are its board members and executives, and it regularly funnels…