The outcome of the Navahine lawsuit signaled a return to living by some of the fundamental concepts of the aloha spirit. Forgive my abbreviation, but last week a BFD happened in Hawaii that deserves more attention for valiant efforts past and present. Last Thursday, the plaintiffs and defendants in Navahine v.
Hawaii Department of Transportation announced a settlement. This was a case that was slated to go to trial this week after the plaintiffs had been given standing to sue HDOT in April 2023 for not upholding the constitutional right to “a clean and healthful environment.” Instead of being in court on Monday, the young plaintiffs were celebrating their victory with mele and popsicles on the grounds of Iolani Palace.
As they celebrated, the rest of us are starting to catch up to what is in the settlement and what it means for Hawaii. Words like “historic,” “unprecedented” and “landmark” were used by news organizations around the world to describe this settlement. And to use a term from the plaintiff’s generation, that isn’t glaze.
The centerpiece of the settlement is the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan which is supposed to zero emissions by 2045. But there’s even more B in this BFD because of the where, how and why of the deal. While the young plaintiffs, Gov.
Josh Green and Ed Sniffen, the director of HDOT, deserve credit, the substantial credit also lies with the people who wrote, and then successfully ratified the section in the Hawaii Constitution th.