Highlights of our work:

• We established the landmark Hawaiʻi Supreme Court precedent that water is a public trust in the Waiāhole Ditch case on Oʻahu, and built on that precedent in restoring flows to rivers and streams on Maui and Kauaʻi.
• We took our case challenging Maui County’s pollution of a once-pristine reef to the nation’s highest court and won. In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court solidified the Clean Water Act’s place as one of our nation’s most effective environmental laws.
• We protected endangered sea turtles and false killer whales from life-threatening practices in the Hawaiʻi-based longline fishery; marine mammals from the use of Navy sonar and explosives; seabirds from power lines and light attraction; tropical fish extracted and sold by the aquarium trade; and more.
• We ended military live-fire training in Mākua Valley on Oʻahu — which threatened scores of endangered species and cultural sites, including ancient temples. Mākua Valley is sacred to Native Hawaiians, many of whom believe it to be the birthplace of their people.
• We won a historic Hawaiʻi Supreme Court ruling protecting traditional and customary rights in the “PASH” case, in which we represented Native Hawaiians fighting to protect their subsistence gathering rights against a developer planning a huge destination resort and golf course.
• We helped to build Hawaiʻi into a world leader in rooftop solar, and defeat the proposed takeover of Hawaiian Electric by NextEra and the plan to switch the utility to imported gas.
• We upheld the Hawaiʻi solar water heating mandate and halted plans to promote residential gas use in major new subdivision developments.
• We continue to help Hawaiʻi make progress toward its 100% renewable energy mandate by engaging in precedent-setting Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission proceedings to advance path-breaking reforms of utility regulation to a performance-based system; expand customer access to distributed energy resources like rooftop solar; and accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy.