ExxonKnews
August 15, 2023
The eyes of the world are on Maui, now the site of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. As of this writing, nearly 100 people have been killed in the fires — but officials fear that number will likely be much higher in the coming days.
For years, Maui officials have been sounding the alarm about the impact of climate change on their communities and fighting in court to hold polluters accountable for making such devastation all the more likely. When the county sued Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell and other fossil fuel companies in 2020 for a “coordinated, multi-front effort to conceal and deny their own knowledge” of the dangers of burning fossil fuels, the increasing risk of destructive wildfires was cited in the lawsuit no less than eight times.
Maui spent years defeating the industry’s numerous attempts to move the case out of state court, where it was originally filed. The county is now awaiting a decision from a judge that could make it the third community — after Honolulu and Massachusetts — to enter the pretrial phase of a climate accountability lawsuit against Big Oil. That means the people of Maui would be one step closer to their rightful day in court to hold fossil fuel companies accountable.
