LAKEPORT, Calif. — A Lakeport woman this week pleaded not guilty to the murder of her boyfriend.
Melinda Mildred Fred, 39, entered the not guilty plea in Lake County Superior Court on Tuesday morning, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.
Authorities said Fred fatally stabbed 36-year-old Christopher Aaron Burrows on May 16.
The District Attorney’s Office has charged Fred with murder, assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence.
Hinchcliff said the investigation is continuing and that they do not yet know what defense Fred will allege in the case. “We may not know until trial or closer to trial.”
He said a preliminary hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Fred will return to court at 1:30 p.m. June 13 in Department 3 for a bail review hearing.
Hinchcliff said Fred’s bail was set at $1 million at her May 18 arraignment.
At the June 13 bail review hearing, Hinchcliff expects Fred will try to get her bail reduced.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Dr. James Houpis. Courtesy photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Dr. James Houpis, Ph.D., interim chancellor of the Yuba Community College District, will retire on May 31, following a 40-plus year career in higher education.
Dr. Houpis was appointed as interim chancellor in 2021.
The district’s new chancellor, Shouan Pan, Ph.D., will take the helm on June 15.
“We have been fortunate to have a seasoned leader like Dr. Houpis leading us over the past two years as our interim chancellor. His academic and leadership experience, focus on students, and new strategic initiatives have left an indelible mark on the District,” said YCCD Board of Trustees President Juan Delgado. “Our students, faculty, administrators and staff are forever grateful for his efforts which have positioned both the District and our new chancellor for future success.”
Topping the list of Dr. Houpis’ contributions during his tenure at YCCD was the launch of a fully online campus, which will expand access to courses that not only support career advancement for working adults but also degree and educational certificate completion.
At a time when most YCCD students work at least part time, the online campus will provide much-needed flexibility, putting a community college education within reach for those who might otherwise be unable to attend college.
Beyond expanding access to coursework through the online campus, he also led strategies to increase high school student participation in the dual credit programs offered at both Yuba and Woodland Community Colleges and supported expanded enrollments in apprentice programs to support local workforce needs.
As an environmental scientist, it is no surprise that Dr. Houpis championed and led the district in developing a Climate Change Resolution.
Since the passage of Measure J in 2006, the district has made a concerted effort to ensure that all new buildings and renovations support the goal of developing environmentally sustainable campuses.
Through Dr. Houpis’ leadership, the district has doubled down on its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and to model responsible, sustainable business practices across all district operations.
Dr. Houpis also stabilized the district’s finances, advanced the development of a resource allocation model to promote cost management, advanced salary equity for administrators and classified employees by initiating the district’s first compensation study, improved employee morale by actively working to build a more constructive internal culture, and updated campus websites to make them more functional for students.
“I accepted the interim chancellor role with the goal of making YCCD my last career move before retirement,” Dr. Houpis said. “As I reflect on my career, I’ve enjoyed every step of my journey — from being a research scientist studying the effects of air pollution and climate change, to serving as a faculty member and advising students, to shaping curriculum and developing student success initiatives as a provost, to hiring and mentoring administrators, faculty and staff as a program director and department chair, to leading campuses and overseeing district operations as a university provost, college president and interim chancellor.”
He added, “I’ve enjoyed my time at YCCD, and I’m proud of the work that we have achieved together. It has been my honor to work on behalf of our students, to support our outstanding leadership team, faculty, and staff, and to work in concert with the Board of Trustees to build upon YCCD’s many successes.”
Before joining YCCD, Dr. Houpis held leadership roles at other community colleges, including serving as president of Modesto Junior College and dean of academic support and learning technologies at Skyline College.
He also had a long and distinguished career in the California State University, or CSU, system, holding leadership and faculty positions at both CSU East Bay and CSU Chico.
Across the past four decades, Dr. Houpis has earned many grants and awards for innovation and excellence including the Paul Simon Teaching and Research Award, Accessibility Services Award of Appreciation and the Associated Students Award: Model of Shared Governance for Exemplary Service to Students.
He also has been selected for a fellowship with the Wheelhouse Center for Community College Leadership and Research.
Because of his reputation in higher education and expertise in environmental and biological sciences, Dr. Houpis has been chosen to serve as a reviewer for prestigious initiatives such as the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences and the U.S. Global Change Research Program.
He also received special recognition from the California Senate recognizing his continued efforts on behalf of Latino students and his strong support of programs helping students complete their studies on their way to lifelong success.
He co-authored three book chapters and has co-authored more than 50 professional journal articles, proceedings, and scholarly reports based on his research in environmental and biological science.
Dr. Houpis holds a Ph.D. in forest science from the University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree in biology from San Diego State University, and a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from UC Berkeley.
Merry Jo Velasquez won the People's Choice Award for best booth at the 2022 Winefest. Photo by Debra Fredrickson. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — It’s time to mark your calendars for this year’s annual Lake County Home Wine and Beer Makers’ Festival at Lakeport’s Library Park.
The event takes place from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 10.
General admission is free. Wine and beer tasters will pay $30 in advance or $35 at the gate to taste samples from home wine and beer makers.
There will also be some of Lake County’s finest commercial wines available for tasting this year from Six Sigma, Smiling Dogs and Rosa D’Oro.
As it has over the past several decades, the Winefest features wine and beer tasting, along with a large variety of booths with artwork, crafts, clothing, and agricultural products for folks to wander through.
Music will be provided by The Hip Replacements, and several musicians from the Lake County Symphony will also be on hand to entertain during the day.
Deborah Welch won the People's Choice Award for best wine label (Squirrel Hill) at the 2022 Winefest. Photo by Debra Fredrickson. Attendees at this year’s event can expect a variety of delicious food choices from local vendors: La Catrina Food Truck offers a selection of Mexican favorites; The Noodle Bowl will provide their popular ramen bowls with grilled meat and vegetables; and Bing’s Kitchen again brings their tasty Filipino food (lumpia). Ripe Choice Farm and Catering, Villa’s Snow Cones, and Danae’s Desserts will also be there.
Volunteers of the LCSA Wine Club organize this yearly event to benefit the Lake County Symphony Association, or LCSA.
Proceeds are used to support LCSA’s activities, including in-school music programs for students, scholarships, concerts and underwriting of the Lake County Symphony and the Community & Youth Orchestra.
John Parkinson, music director and conductor for the last 43 years, will again be manning the symphony’s booth.
Now in its 21st year, the Winefest was started by the late Connel Murray — with other amateur winemakers who were supporters of the symphony — to raise funds for the Lake County Symphony.
As the Winefest expanded over the years, amateur and commercial beer makers were included — a welcome addition for beer lovers.
All amateur participants are eligible to win gold, silver and bronze ribbons given for a wide range of varietals and brews in the popular “Peoples’ Choice” awards voted on by attendees.
Home winemakers also have the chance to enter their creations for blind judging by experts the evening before the Winefest. Local participating commercial wineries and breweries are not eligible for prizes, which only go to the amateurs.
Garry Colson is just one of the artists who will be at the 2023 Winefest, offering his original pen and ink, watercolors, pastels, and acrylics. Photo by Debra Fredrickson. Visitors to the Winefest who choose not to indulge in wine tasting, can show support for the LCSA by placing bids on silent auction items or buying tickets for the “Barrel of Wine” raffle.
The silent auction includes items like original artwork, trips, hotel stays, and gift items donated by local businesses.
Congressman Mike Thompson has regularly donated a U.S. flag from the Capitol, along with products from his Lake County vineyard.
The popular “Barrel of Wine” raffle goes on all day long and gives the lucky winner approximately 36 bottles of assorted Lake County wines. The actual barrel used for the wines in the raffle will be available for bidders in the silent auction.
Wine makers, home brewers, and all nonfood vendors have until June 3 to reserve a spot at the Winefest.
There is no booth fee for home wine and beer makers, or commercial wineries who offer their wines for tasting. More details and applications can be found online at https://lakecountywinefest.com/.
Advance tickets are available at several Lakeport locations: Watershed Books, Wine in the Willows, and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce. Tickets can also be found at Laujor Estate Winery in Kelseyville, and online, through Eventbrite.
See Lake County Winefest on Facebook for the latest information.
Debra Fredrickson is a member of the Lake County Symphony Association.
The Hip Replacements will perform at the Winefest this year. Courtesy photo. The Silent Auction is a popular event at the Winefest. Courtesy photo. The Malt Konocti Mashers plan to be at the Winefest again this year. Courtesy photo.
“Wendy.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has more new dogs this week needing homes of their own.
This week the shelter has 51 adoptable dogs.
The dogs that are available for adoption include “Wendy,” a year and a half old female Doberman pinscher mix with a red and tan coat.
“Koda Bear.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.
There also is “Koda Bear,” a 2-year-old male pit bull mix with a brown brindle coat. Staff said Koda Bear is a love bug who does well with other dogs, is playful, plays fetch, is neutered and up-to-date on vaccinations.
Another of this week’s featured dogs is “Waldo,” a 3- to 4-year-old pit bull terrier with a black and white coat. Staff said he is a sweetheart who loves to be with his people, and enjoys walking, playing fetch or just hanging out.
“Waldo.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Office of Education is seeking applicants for a seat on the Board of Education.
The vacancy the Office of Education is seeking to fill is for the Board of Education Trustee Area 5, which covers the Kelseyville area.
The Trustee Area 5 seat has been held by Anna Rose Ravenwoode, a credentialed public school educator and experienced grant writer who was first elected to the board in 2018 and reelected last year.
Ravenwood died April 26 at the age of 72.
The Lake County Office of Education is accepting applications to fill the vacancy by appointment. The term of this appointment is until December 2024.
If an individual wishes to continue to serve after the term has expired, they will need to run for election in November of 2024. That term will end in December 2026.
Applicants must be at least 18 years old, reside within the boundaries of Area 5, be a registered voter at time of appointment, and not be legally disqualified from holding civic office.
The application should describe the applicant’s qualifications and interest in serving on the board.
Individuals who are employees of the Lake County Office of Education, a Lake County school district, Mendocino Community College or Yuba Community College are ineligible to serve.
Online applications can be found on the Lake County Office of Education website. Paper Applications are available at the Lake County Office of Education Lakeport office at 1152 S. Main St. Lakeport.
The deadline to submit an application is 12 p.m. Friday, June 2.
The Board of Education will conduct interviews in person on Wednesday, June 14.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lower Lake Community Action Group is preparing to kick off the summer with its Lower Lake Daze & Street Fair.
The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 28, in downtown Lower Lake.
This year’s theme is “Then & Now.”
The day will feature a street fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with vendors and artisans, food trucks and live music, and the chance to stop in at town businesses.
The parade takes place at 11 a.m., with Lonne Sloan presiding as grand marshal.
For more information and applications for both vendors and the parade, visit the Lower Lake Community Action Group’s website.
Lassen Pack, 2017. Credit. California Department of Fish and Wildlife. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported this week that two new groups of wolves have been confirmed in Northern California — one in Tehama County and the other in western Lassen County.
If the department designates each as a pack, they would become the fifth and sixth confirmed wolf packs in the Golden State in 100 years.
“It brings me great joy to see California’s wolves continue to increase in number, aided by the strong state and federal protections here,” said Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Wolves rewild the landscape and that’s good not just for the wolves but for entire ecosystems.”
In March photographs of three wolves in Tehama County were captured on a trail camera on private land.
The western Lassen County group was documented on three different occasions during the first quarter of 2023.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is surveying these areas to determine if either group had pups this year, the sex of each of the groups’ members and whether any of them are related to wolves from California’s known packs.
California has three existing families of wolves: the Lassen pack, which was confirmed in 2017 and ranges across parts of Lassen and Plumas counties; the Whaleback pack, confirmed in late 2020 and early 2021 and ranges across eastern Siskiyou County; and the Beckwourth pack, confirmed in late spring of 2021 and whose territory is in eastern Plumas County.
This week’s report also included the sad note that a yearling Whaleback pup died after being struck by a vehicle on Highway 97 in January.
Late spring to early summer is when the department can determine if any of these wolf families has denned, signaling the potential for pups to be born.
The department will be checking on the reproductive status of the three existing packs as well as that of the two newly confirmed groups.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed that these two new groups of wolves will officially become families by having pups of their own,” said Weiss. “I’m also looking forward to the department bestowing these wolf families with pack names to reflect their presence and significance.”
The first wolf in nearly a century to make California part of his range was OR-7, a radio-collared wolf from Oregon that entered California in late 2011. OR-7 traveled across seven northeastern counties in California before returning to southwestern Oregon, where he found a mate and settled down.
The original breeding male of the Lassen pack was the offspring of OR-7’s first litter and several others of OR-7’s offspring have also come to California, including the breeding female of the Whaleback pack.
California’s only other known wolf pack in modern times, the Shasta pack, was confirmed in summer 2015 but disappeared a few months later.
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is native to California but was driven to extinction in the state by the mid-1920s.
After OR-7 dispersed from Oregon into California, the Center and allies successfully petitioned the state to fully protect wolves under California’s endangered species act.
Wolves are also federally protected in California under the federal Endangered Species Act. It is illegal to intentionally kill any wolves in the state.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Memorial Day weekend is quickly approaching, and many Californians are preparing to kick off the summer with a holiday gathering or road trip.
Forty-five people were killed in crashes in California during last year’s Memorial Day weekend, nearly a 30% increase from the same period in 2021.
The California Highway Patrol has a plan to help people arrive at their destinations safely, while reducing the number of deadly crashes on the state’s roads.
Beginning at 6:01 p.m. on Friday, May 26, the CHP will implement a statewide maximum enforcement period, or MEP, in anticipation of the increased traffic that often accompanies a holiday weekend.
The MEP will continue through 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 29.
“The core mission of the CHP is to provide the highest level of Safety, Service, and Security to the communities we serve,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. “This holiday, motorists can expect to see additional CHP officers patrolling California’s roadways. All available uniformed members of this Department will be on patrol during this Memorial Day MEP. Our primary focus will be to enhance public safety, deter unsafe driving behavior, and when necessary, take appropriate enforcement action.”
In addition to assisting motorists and looking for traffic violations that often lead to serious injury or death, such as failure to wear a seat belt, speed, and distracted driving, CHP officers will be paying close attention to people who are suspected of driving under the influence (DUI) of drugs and/or alcohol.
CHP officers made nearly 900 DUI arrests during the Memorial Day MEP in 2022. Keep yourself and others who are on the road safe by designating a sober driver or using a ride-share service.
If you see or suspect an impaired driver, call 9-1-1 immediately. Be prepared to provide the dispatcher a description of the vehicle, the license plate number, location, and direction of travel. Your phone call may save someone’s life.
The CHP’s Memorial Day MEP coincides with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s ongoing Click It or Ticket campaign, which continues through June 4. Seat belts save lives. Take two seconds to secure your safety and buckle up.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — California State Parks is honoring the service of veterans, and active and reserve military members, by offering free admission to 130 participating state park units on Memorial Day — Monday, May 29.
The list of participating park units can be found here.
Included among the participating parks are Anderson Marsh State Historic Park in Lower Lake and Clear Lake State Park in Kelseyville.
“State Parks invites these brave people and their families to enjoy the beauty, peace, and rich history of their public lands,” said California State Parks Director Armando Quintero. “Thank you for sacrificing so much for your nation, for your families, and for our freedom.”
Veterans, active duty, and reserve military personnel must show a valid military ID, or proof of discharge other than dishonorable or bad conduct, to receive free admission.
AB 150 (Olsen), signed by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. in 2013, authorized California State Parks to offer veterans, active duty, and reserve military personnel from the United States Armed Forces and the National Guard of any state a reduced or free day use at participating state parks.
State Parks is reminding the public that there are other free passes available including the California State Park Adventure Pass for California fourth graders and their families.
Since the three-year pilot program began in 2021, almost 37,000 fourth graders have signed up for their free Adventure Pass that allows them and their families free access to 19 select state parks.
There is still time to sign up. This year’s fourth graders have until Aug. 31 to enjoy their Adventure Pass.
Learn more about the Adventure Pass here and other free passes here.
Katherine Engel, American University School of Public Affairs and Taryn Morrissey, American University School of Public Affairs
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
The big idea
Roughly half of the people who would be affected by a proposed expansion of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program work requirements already do what’s needed to meet those requirements. There’s also evidence suggesting that many of the rest have caregiving or health conditions that prevent them from working.
Formerly known as food stamps, SNAP helps low-income people buy groceries.
Republicans want the federal government to make SNAP benefits for adults age 50 to 55 without dependents or disabilities contingent on spending 80 hours per month on work activities, which may include employment, short-term training and community service. This proposed change is in a package that the Republican-led House of Representatives passed in April 2023 that seeks to cut spending on several social programs.
Currently, the requirements only apply to adults under 50 without dependents who aren’t disabled.
We’re basing these estimates on our analysis of nationally representative time-diary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey.
We analyzed the time that low-income Americans ages 50-55 who didn’t have a disability or child at home spent working, caring for others or dealing with their personal health and well-being from 2012 to 2021.
We found that in most years, more than half of them worked at least 20 hours per week. We estimated that, on average, those who met the work requirement actually worked about 41-51 hours per week – a full-time schedule.
We also determined that relative to their counterparts who met the work requirements, those who did not spent 10 times as much time managing their own health, five times as much time on child care, and more than five times as much time caring for an elderly or disabled adult.
Why it matters
The GOP bill is grounded in a belief that people who get SNAP benefits and aid through other assistance programs are not employed but capable of working, and that enforcing work requirements can increase employment and earnings.
This measure and several others like it are part of a package that would raise the debt limit to avert a potential U.S. default and a global economic crisis.
Our findings support widespread concerns that expanding SNAP work requirements would sever food assistance benefits for an estimated 275,000 low-income people between the ages of 50 and 55, including many with health conditions and who care for others.
It’s reasonable to expect that the new work requirements would force many people to make hard choices between the caregiving arrangements for their loved ones and keeping their benefits. Also, since people who have poor health may not be able to work, they may find themselves unable to put food on the table if they lose SNAP benefits.
Further, when Americans use SNAP to buy groceries, studies have shown that it stimulates the economy where they live, supporting low-income communities.
Last-minute negotiations between the White House and Republicans have been mostly fruitless as conservatives in the House push for big spending cuts and policy changes, while President Joe Biden has insisted on lifting the ceiling with no strings attached. They are expected to continue to meet in the coming days.
Economist Steven Pressman explains what the debt ceiling is and why we have it – and why it may be time to abolish it.
1. What is the debt ceiling?
Like the rest of us, governments must borrow when they spend more money than they receive. They do so by issuing bonds, which are IOUs that promise to repay the money in the future and make regular interest payments. Government debt is the total sum of all this borrowed money.
The debt ceiling, which Congress established a century ago, is the maximum amount the government can borrow. It’s a limit on the national debt.
Around one-quarter of this money the government actually owes itself. The Social Security Administration has accumulated a surplus and invests the extra money, currently $2.8 trillion, in government bonds. And the Federal Reserve holds $5.5 trillion in U.S. Treasurys.
The rest is public debt. As of October 2022, foreign countries, companies and individuals owned $7.2 trillion of U.S. government debt. Japan and China are the largest holders, with around $1 trillion each. The rest is owed to U.S. citizens and businesses, as well as state and local governments.
3. Why is there a borrowing limit?
Before 1917, Congress would authorize the government to borrow a fixed sum of money for a specified term. When loans were repaid, the government could not borrow again without asking Congress for approval.
The Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917, which created the debt ceiling, changed this. It allowed a continual rollover of debt without congressional approval.
Congress enacted this measure to let then-President Woodrow Wilson spend the money he deemed necessary to fight World War I without waiting for often-absent lawmakers to act. Congress, however, did not want to write the president a blank check, so it limited borrowing to $11.5 billion and required legislation for any increase.
If the debt ceiling isn’t raised before the Treasury Department exhausts its options, decisions will have to be made about who gets paid with daily tax revenues. Further borrowing will not be possible. Government employees or contractors may not be paid in full. Loans to small businesses or college students may stop.
When the government can’t pay all its bills, it is technically in default. Policymakers, economists and Wall Street are concerned about a calamitous financial and economic crisis. Many fear that a government default would have dire economic consequences – soaring interest rates, financial markets in panic and maybe an economic depression.
Under normal circumstances, once markets start panicking, Congress and the president usually act. This is what happened in 2013 when Republicans sought to use the debt ceiling to defund the Affordable Care Act.
But we no longer live in normal political times. The major political parties are more polarized than ever, and the concessions McCarthy gave right-wing Republicans may make it impossible to get a deal on the debt ceiling.
5. Is there a better way?
One possible solution is a legal loophole allowing the U.S. Treasury to mint platinum coins of any denomination. If the U.S. Treasury were to mint a $1 trillion coin and deposit it into its bank account at the Federal Reserve, the money could be used to pay for government programs or repay government bondholders. This could even be justified by appealing to Section 4 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “The validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.”
Few countries even have a debt ceiling. Other governments operate effectively without it. America could too. A debt ceiling is dysfunctional and periodically puts the U.S. economy in jeopardy because of political grandstanding.
The best solution would be to scrap the debt ceiling altogether. Congress already approved the spending and the tax laws that require more debt. Why should it also have to approve the additional borrowing?
It should be remembered that the original debt ceiling was put in place because Congress couldn’t meet quickly and approve needed spending to fight a war. In 1917 cross-country travel was by rail, requiring days to get to Washington. This made some sense then. Today, when Congress can vote online from home, this is no longer the case.
This article has been updated to reflect ongoing negotiations and the expected default deadline of June 1.
Honolulu has lost more than 5 miles of its famous beaches to sea level rise and storm surges. Sunny-day flooding during high tides makes many city roads impassable, and water mains for the public drinking water system are corroding from saltwater because of sea level rise.
The damage has left the city and county spending millions of dollars on repairs and infrastructure to try to adapt to the rising risks.
Future costs will almost certainly be higher. More than US$19 billion in property value, at today’s dollars, is at risk by 2100 from projected sea level rise, driven by greenhouse gas emissions largely from the burning of fossil fuels. Elsewhere in Honolulu County, which covers all of Oahu, many coastal communities will be cut off or uninhabitable.
Unwilling to have their taxpayers bear the full brunt of these costs, the city and county sued Sunoco LP, Exxon Mobil Corp. and other big oil companies in 2020.
At stake in all of these cases is who pays for the staggering cost of a changing climate.
Local and state governments that are suing want to hold the major oil companies responsible for the costs of responding to disasters that scientists are increasingly able to attribute to climate disruption and tie back to the fossil fuel industry. Several of the plaintiffs accuse the companies of lying to the public about their products’ risks in violation of state or local consumer protection laws that prohibit false advertising.
The governments in the Honolulu case allege that the oil companies “are directly responsible” for a substantial rise in carbon dioxide emissions that have been driving climate change. They say the companies should contribute their fair share to defray some of the costs.
The gist of Honolulu’s complaint is that the big oil companies have known for decades that their products cause climate change, yet their public statements continued to sow doubts about what was known, and they failed to warn their customers, investors and the public about the dangers posed by their products.
Were it not for this deception, the lawsuit says, the city and county would not be facing mounting costs of abating the damage from climate change.
Importantly, the complaint is based on state – not federal – law. It alleges that the defendants have violated established common law rules long recognized by the courts involving nuisance, failure to warn and trespass.
The city and county want the companies to help fund climate adaptation measures – everything from building seawalls and raising buildings to buying flood-prone properties and restoring beaches and dunes.
Supreme Court could have killed these cases
Not surprisingly, the oil companies have thrown their vast legal resources into fighting these cases.
On April 24, however, they lost one of their most powerful arguments.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear challenges in the Hawaii case and four others involving the seemingly technical question of which court should hear these cases: state or federal.
The oil companies had “removed” the cases from state court to federal court, arguing that damage lawsuits for climate change go beyond the limits of state law and are governed by federal law.
That theory would have derailed all five cases – because there is no federal common law for greenhouse gases.
The court made that position clear in 2011 in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut. Several state and local governments had sued five major power companies for violating the federal common law of interstate nuisance and asked for a court order forcing these companies to reduce their emissions. The Supreme Court refused, holding that the federal Clean Air Act displaced federal common law for these gases.
Several coastal communities, including in Honolulu County, facing increasing erosion want oil companies to help pay for protective infrastructure.AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy
To avoid this fate, Honolulu and the other plaintiffs focused on violations of state law, not federal law. Without exception, the federal courts of appeals sided with them and sent the cases back to state court.
What happens next?
The Honolulu case leads the pack at this point.
In 2022, the 1st Circuit Court in Hawaii denied the oil companies’ motion to dismiss the case based on the argument that the Clean Air Act also preempts state common law. This could open the door for discovery to begin sometime this year.
In discovery, senior corporate officers – perhaps including former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who was secretary of state under Donald Trump – will be required to answer questions under oath about what the companies knew about climate change versus what they disclosed to the public.
In 2019, former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson testified in a securities fraud lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general’s office. The judge ruled in Exxon’s favor.AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Evidence from Exxon documents, described in a recent study by science historians Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran, shows that the company’s own scientists “knew as much as academic and government scientists knew” about climate change going back decades. But instead of communicating what they knew, “Exxon worked to deny it,” Supran and Oreskes write. The company overemphasized uncertainties and cast doubt on climate models.
This is the kind of evidence that could sway a jury. The standard of proof in a civil case like Honolulu’s is “preponderance of the evidence,” which roughly translates to 51%. Ten of the 12 jurors must agree on a verdict.
Any verdict likely would be appealed, perhaps all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it could be years before the Honolulu case is resolved.
Lawsuits don’t begin to cover the damage
It is unlikely that even substantial verdicts in these cases will come close to covering the full costs of damage from climate change.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 2022 alone the U.S. sustained 18 weather and climate disasters that each exceeded $1 billion in damage. Together, they cost over $165 billion.
But for many of the communities most at risk from these disasters, every penny counts. We believe establishing the oil companies’ responsibility may also discourage further investments in fossil fuel production by banks and brokerage houses already nervous about the financial risks of climate disruption.