Historic agreement in Hawaii on transitioning away from fossil fuels in transportation
Happy solstice! A very cool thing happened yesterday here in Hawaii: a settlement was reached in favor of a lawsuit brought by Earthjustice on behalf of Hawaii’s kids against the state Dept. of Transportation to actually take Hawaii’s climate and energy goals seriously.
The DOT now has to actually begin planning for a 100% fossil free transportation future — which they argued in court was just an “aspirational” goal and not actually binding.
The judge ruled differently and considers the state and county goals binding. And that was the basis for the settlement by Governor Green and the DOT.
Progress for humans and the planet. We are on track, sort of, for a 100% renewable energy future but we have a LONG way to go, particularly on transportation. Clearly, EVs are the main tool we have but we also need to build out better mass transit, bike lanes, walkable communities, etc.
Here are some more details on the settlement: https://earthjustice.org/press/2024/historic-agreement-settles-hawaii-youth-led-constitutional-climate-complaint
And here’s a story from Reuters:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hawaii-agrees-settle-youth-climate-003105458.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall
