Democratic prosecutors in Hawaii filed a sprawling subpoena against the American Petroleum Institute, seeking decades of climate change-related documents and correspondence with 225 entities.
The targets include media outlets, academic institutions, conservative advocacy organizations, business trade groups, and public relations firms, as reported [1] by The Washington Free Beacon.
The 55-page subpoena [2] was filed in Hawaii circuit court in June and served on API in Washington, D.C., two weeks later, according to court records. Additional filings show prosecutors deposed API’s custodian of records in late July.
The demand is part of a climate change lawsuit filed in 2020 by the City and County of Honolulu against major oil companies. The defendants include Sunoco, BP America, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell.
Honolulu claims it has suffered adverse effects from extreme weather and argues the oil companies are responsible for those events. The lawsuit also alleges the companies continued producing oil and gas for decades despite knowing about climate-related dangers.
The litigation is part of a coordinated campaign, fueled by dark money and pursued by Democratic state and local prosecutors, to hold oil companies responsible for global warming. Dozens of Democratic led states and cities have pursued similar cases since Honolulu filed its lawsuit.
Honolulu’s case remains one of the furthest along and is currently in discovery. If successful, these first-of-their-kind lawsuits could force oil companies to pay billions of dollars in damages, while experts warn the result could be higher energy prices.
Ryan Meyers, API’s senior vice president and general counsel, declined to address the subpoena directly. He called the lawsuit “part of a coordinated campaign against an industry that is vital to everyday life and serves as the engine of America’s economy.”
“Climate policy is a federal, not state issue,” Meyers said in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon.
The subpoena seeks records dating back more than 75 years, marking a significant escalation in the case. It appears to be the only subpoena of its kind filed so far, though it could pave the way for broader demands in the future.
The Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments Monday in a similar case filed in Boulder County, Colorado. That proceeding could help determine how the Honolulu litigation moves forward.
“For a lot of these cases, the process is the punishment,” Mike Fragoso, a partner at the D.C. firm Torridon Law, told the Free Beacon. “It is going into a new phase in this litigation where they are really doing violence to free speech.”
“API is an advocacy organization—its job is to advocate for the interest of its members and global warming is a political issue,” Fragoso continued.
“There’s lots of First Amendment implications to it. People disagree on it. What they’re trying to do is basically set it up so that if you disagree on global warming, you’re part of a conspiracy to defraud the people of Hawaii.”
The subpoena implicates the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the newspapers’ brand studios, which produce original advertiser content. Neither outlet responded to requests for comment.
Conservative and libertarian organizations named include the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, the Center for Industrial Progress, the Federalist Society, the Hoover Institution, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, and the Reason Foundation.
The Aspen Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, described as establishment organizations with ties to the oil industry, are also implicated.
Industry organizations named include the Chamber of Commerce, American Coal Foundation, Edison Electric Institute, and Independent Petroleum Association of America.
The subpoena further reaches Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.
It demands all API correspondence with listed groups “relating to fossil fuel products, climate change topics, global warming, or the greenhouse effect.”
Prosecutors also want internal communications concerning climate change, certain studies conducted over the years, API’s finances, and its membership.
Because a federal court in Hawaii allowed the lawsuit to enter discovery, API must comply unless it formally objects, a process that can be more onerous than producing the documents.
Steve Milloy, a critic of mainstream climate science whose organizations are named, said prosecutors are “just throwing all this crap against the wall.”
An anonymous energy executive whose company is involved in the litigation called the subpoena court system weaponization and warned that the targeting should terrify anyone concerned about free speech and the First Amendment.