Hawaiʻi’s green fee is the latest climate effort challenged by Trump

Hawaiʻi’s new green fee aimed at offsetting tourism’s impact on the environment has caught the eye of the Trump administration, which has grown increasingly hostile to efforts to fight climate change. 

A U.S. Department of Justice motion to intervene in Cruise Lines International’s lawsuit against the state and county landed earlier this month, just one day before federal Judge Jill Otake held the first court hearing on the case. 

The tax was heralded as historic when it passed the Legislature last April. As of January 1, it will apply to hotel guests and other short-term visitors and, in a concession intended to gain the support of the hotel industry, it was expanded during the session to include cruise ships as well.

In the motion, Assistant Attorney General Stanley Woodward calls the green fee, the first of its kind in the nation, a “scheme to extort American citizens and businesses solely to benefit Hawaiʻi.”

A court decision there could shape just how sweeping Hawaiʻi’s green fee will actually be — and whether cruise ships that dock and unload passengers in the nation’s lone island state will be treated and taxed the same as hotel and visitor rooms on land.

It’s not clear what percentage the tourism industry represents of the $100 million in estimated annual green fee collections.

Richard Wallsgrove, co-director of the William S. Richardson School of Law’s Environmental Law Program, characterized the DOJ’s motion to join the case as ideologically motivated overreach by an administration that has called climate change a hoax. 

Scores of plaintiffs around the country regularly allege in court that the U.S. Constitution is being violated, Wallsgrove said, and the DOJ doesn’t intervene. 

“You have to ask the question: Why this lawsuit and why now?” he said. “It’s because of this notion the federal government needs to protect U.S. citizens from a climate change hoax, which, you know, couldn’t be a bigger bowl of nonsense.”

The Trump administration also sued Hawaiʻi earlier this year to try and stop the state from holding fossil fuel companies responsible in court for climate change impacts.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi heads the DOJ, and under her leadership that department has pursued in court Trump’s rollback of climate initiatives. Her brother, Bradley Bondi, is the lead attorney representing Cruise Lines International in the lawsuit against the state. 

Typically, Wallsgrove said, such a familial connection to a case doesn’t raise any ethical red flags. But, based on all the norms being broken during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, he said, “it’s not off-base in this particular moment in history” to question whether the DOJ is stepping in to do the bidding of someone related to the Attorney General.

A $2 billion demand

Starting next year, the transient accommodations tax that visitors pay on their nightly hotel and short-term rental stays will increase by 0.75 percent — to 14 percent, including county charges — to cover the new fee. Cruise ship passengers are to start paying the full visitor tax for the first time next year, which would represent a new, 14 percent charge on the time those passengers stay in Hawaiʻi ports. 

State officials estimate that will raise about $100 million annually to fund projects addressing climate change and environmental degradation in the islands.

During a webinar last week, Jeff Mikulina, chair of Governor Josh Green’s Green Fee Advisory Council, downplayed the impact of the lawsuit. He said that if the cruise industry wins, it would only apply to the cruise ship cabins and would “slightly” decrease the total green fee proceeds collected.

Mikulina said the volunteer group is evaluating 620 projects that would benefit from the new fund, that together would cost about $2 billion. The council intends to give Green its recommendations for which projects to choose as soon as possible, he said, then make those recommendations public before the next legislative session starts in January.

Competing interests

Jim McCarthy, a spokesman for Cruise Lines International, said in a statement Friday that the group “remains focused on ensuring clear, consistent laws that support Hawai‘i’s communities, protect the environment, and sustain responsible maritime travel.”

The cruise industry, he said, generates $1 billion in economic impact to Hawaiʻi each year and “we are working to ensure that success continues on a lawful, sustainable foundation.” 

The industry contends the state green fee violates the Constitution’s Tonnage Clause and the Rivers and Harbors Act, which limit states’ abilities to charge vessels for docking in their ports and navigating their waters.

Before the federal government looked to intervene, state Attorney General Anne Lopez’s office had filed a motion to dismiss the case that Otake hasn’t yet ruled on. The judge also would have to approve the DOJ’s entrance into the suit.

In a statement Friday, Lopez’ office said that it is “vigorously defending the legality” of the green fee but declined to comment further because of the pending litigation.

Waikīkī-area state Representative Adrian Tam, who chairs the House Tourism Committee and helped add cruise ships to the tax base, said Friday that he has full faith that Lopez can “protect Hawaiʻi’s interests here.”

He added, “I just wish DOJ would protect our interests as well.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change and the environment is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Marisla Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and the Frost Family Foundation.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Hawaiʻi’s green fee is the latest climate effort challenged by Trump on Nov 30, 2025.