A lawsuit the federal government filed against Michigan over fossil fuels has been thrown out — prompting Hawaii to use that case to bolster its own of efforts to hold private companies accountable for their role in climate change.

The federal government filed a lawsuit against Hawaii on April 30 after Gov. Josh Green announced he planned to sue private fossil fuel companies for deceptive marketing that contributed to climate change harms. The federal government’s lawsuit came just one day before the state filed its lawsuit.

The state’s lawsuit against fossil fuel companies — Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and others — was filed
May 1. It claims fossil fuel companies knew the “catastrophic consequences for the planet and its people” of fossil fuel pollution, but rather than inform consumers of the danger the companies “mounted a decades-­
long campaign of deception to discredit the scientific consensus on climate change;” created doubt in consumers; and delayed the energy economy’s transition to a lower-carbon future “while maximizing their own profits.”

The companies created, contributed to, and assisted in creating climate change-­related harms to Hawaii through their failure to provide warnings in a “multi-decadal sophisticated campaign of disinformation,” the lawsuit said. Proceedings in the state case were paused on July 30 pending the conclusion of the federal case, court records show.

The federal government claimed Hawaii is “choosing to stand in the way” of a national effort to secure reliable sources of domestic energy in the midst of an “energy emergency.” It also claimed Hawaii’s lawsuit against fossil fuel companies interfered with the Clean Air Act and with the federal government’s “exclusive authority over interstate and foreign commerce, greenhouse gas regulation and national energy policy.”

The state denied the federal government’s allegations on June 30 and moved for the court to dismiss the case on July 25.

In its arguments, the state claimed the federal lawsuit was an “extraordinary and unprecedented action” that “attempts to prevent the state from petitioning its own courts to provide relief from private parties” whose actions violated state law and harmed the state. It said the government was looking to prevent a lawsuit to which it was not a party nor had any legal interest.

It said the state has a right to enforce state laws relating to fossil fuel companies’ marketing practices and clarified the lawsuit did not seek to impose liability for direct greenhouse gas emissions.

“Allowing this case to proceed would give the United States license to wield the federal courts as a weapon against any litigation between non-federal parties that an incumbent presidential administration dislikes,” the state argued.

In its reply, filed Sept. 24, the federal government claimed Hawaii could not sue fossil fuel companies because federal law, such as the Clean Air Act, prohibits states from holding energy companies accountable for worldwide emissions of greenhouse gasses, calling Hawaii’s lawsuit “unlawful state interference.”

On Jan. 24, U.S. District Court Judge Jane Beckering dismissed a similar case in Michigan. Hawaii filed the opinion as a supplemental exhibit on Jan. 26.

The federal government filed a lawsuit against Michigan after it heard the state was seeking proposals from attorneys to sue private fossil fuel companies for climate change impacts. Michigan filed its lawsuit accusing fossil fuel companies of colluding to stall meaningful competition from renewable energy on Jan. 23 — one day before the federal case was dismissed. The federal government’s arguments as to why it should be allowed to prevent Michigan from suing fossil fuel companies were nearly the same as it argued in its case against Hawaii.

In Beckering’s opinion, she claimed the federal government’s lawsuit was “frivolous” because it hinged on potential theories that Michigan may argue and the presumption that “any state law claim that Michigan may assert based on global greenhouse gas emissions would be preempted by federal law,” which case law does not support.

The case did not arise out of a “concrete factual context” but rather “contingent future events,” Beckering wrote, adding that the federal government failed to provide any cases where a court preemptively stopped a case based on “a broad swath of unspecified claims against unspecified members of a given industry” simply because the party was investigating legal strategies.

The federal case hearing between Hawaii and the United States on whether the case should be dismissed was rescheduled to a later unspecified date, court records show. U.S. Senior District Judge Helen Gilmor said on Jan. 22 she planned to issue a new briefing schedule, but as of Monday had not yet filed it, according to publicly available documents.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii News Now has learned of another mental patient death tied to a mainland facility contracted by the state health department.

Curtis Panoke was sent to the Columbia Regional Care Center from the state hospital in 2010 after multiple assaults. In 2016, other patients there beat him into a coma and he died last year.

His family is suing the facility and the state.

Hawaii News Now learned of Panoke’s death while investigating the suicide of a Kauai man named Payton Hough at that same facility.

Kauai man’s troubled path

Hough was born and raised on Kauai, but his life ended in an institution thousands of miles away. His story reveals weaknesses in how the state handles people with mental illness.

Growing up in Hanalei, “we spent so much time on the beach, always fishing, going down to the beach, camping, crabbing,” said Tanisha Baker, Hough’s sister.

“He was just so caring and compassionate and very warm,” Baker said.

Hough, who they called Makana, was a skateboarder and skilled with electronics at school.

“He came in there when the rest of the techs couldn’t get the computers up online. He went in there and troubleshooted and got it up online,” said Payton Hough Sr.

Traumatic incident triggers decline

Hough’s family believes his descent into mental illness began with an incident in Kilauea.

Michael Ebinger, who went to prison for killing a man on the same property in 1983, confronted Hough and a friend with a gun and machete.

Ebinger committed suicide the day the boys were to testify.

“When that happened, there was a change. There was a definite change in the way that he was processing things, the way that he was communicating,” his father said.

By his 20s, Hough was severely mentally ill, often homeless and on drugs. In 2013, he was arrested on a burglary charge, then acquitted and committed to the state hospital in Kaneohe.

The family maintained ties.

“We would send him letters and cards and books and a Bible and pictures of us, just to remind him that we love him, we miss him,” Baker said.

Brief improvement, then setback

As doctors adjusted his medications, Hough improved and eventually was released to a bed at Kahi Mohala and allowed to begin living in the community.

“It was like night and day. It was like, wow, son, you’re doing so good, and he would feel good, and he would be very energetic and want to do things,” his father said.

But on Halloween 2019, during a visit to the probation office at Circuit Court in Honolulu, he was accused of assaulting a sheriff.

Documents say he was taken back to the hospital, but within days he was in Oahu Community Correctional Center’s mental health module, sharing a cell with 56-year-old Jacob Russell, who he considered a friend.

Later, he told his family he couldn’t handle the close quarters.

“‘Dad, I needed space.’ He was constantly pleading for help and wanting to be heard, and they would not listen to his concerns,” his father said.

Hough lashed out against Russell in a beating court records say included multiple stomps to Russell’s head and neck area. Russell died on Christmas.

Hough was acquitted again because of mental illness, but would never leave custody again. His connection to his family deteriorated so much they called police to check on him in the hospital.

Family cut off from contact

“After I did that, things changed. Things changed. That’s when things… They shut us down completely,” his father said.

Sometime in 2024, the family learned that Hough was no longer in Hawaii. He had been transferred to the 347-bed Columbia Regional Care Center in South Carolina, a converted jail.

It happened without notice to his attorney and without any record in the courts.

The Hawaii Health Department has contracted the facility to take in the most violent of its mental patients.

Other than a brief Zoom call around Christmas, the family was denied access to Hough.

“We were fighting for him,” said his mother, Zina Hough.

“It was like they were trying to erase his voice,” said Hough Sr.

Pastor denied access

Kauai pastor Gregory Poole offered to help. He is from South Carolina and had prison ministry experience.

“I’d always had good success to basically be able to go visit as a pastor and check on that particular individual,” Poole said.

His calls were ignored. He showed up at the facility in September and was denied access to Hough, but his doctor told him things were going well and he was doing well.

“So I actually left the facility that day being very encouraged,” Poole said.

But two days before Thanksgiving, the Columbia County coroner called the family to say Hough had committed suicide.

“We were devastated. Our whole world fell apart. Our worst nightmare, the thing we’ve been trying to prevent from happening happened,” Baker said.

“While on watch, on suicide watch, he was supposed to be watched every 30 minutes, and he wasn’t,” his father said.

“It could have been different. If we could just tell him, ‘Hey, we’re thinking about you. We’re praying for you. We’re gonna come visit,’” Baker said.

“It’s tragic. There’s just no other way to say it,” Poole said.

State offers limited support

Adding to the family’s trauma, the state only offered one plane ticket for someone to collect Hough’s ashes.

They put up a GoFundMe so the family could go.

“How is one person going to go over there and pick up the remains of our son when we’re such a tight-knit family? How could the grieving process be laid on just one when it’s all, we’re all family? We’re ohana,” his father said through tears.

The state health department said it cannot discuss any individual patient, even if deceased, but said, “If the patient consents to allow family member(s) involvement in their care…. the department encourages family support and involvement in their loved ones’ care.”

The department says it currently has seven patients in South Carolina, but did not say how many have been sent over the years.

“Our plan is to bring him back back here to Hanalei Bay, where he’s been trying to get back to for years, and we’re going to do a celebration of life and scatter his ashes in Hanalei Bay,” Baker said.

While Hough may finally rest, the family won’t. The Columbia Regional Care Center did not respond to questions.

Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

One of Hawaii’s oldest and biggest banks is headed for a leadership change on
April 1 under a succession plan being publicly announced today.

Bank of Hawaii Corp. CEO Peter Ho is set to hand off the chief executive role at the 128-year-old financial institution to company President and Chief Banking Officer James Polk.

Ho, who joined the bank in 1993 and has been CEO and board chair since 2010, is retiring after serving as the third-longest tenured CEO at the company and the longest in 71 years.

The 60-year-old Ho said 16 years is a long time to be the chief executive of a company with public shareholders, and that the time for a change at the top of the company was right because the bank is in great financial shape and has a well-groomed executive ready to step in.

“To serve as CEO at Bank of Hawaii has been the greatest honor of my professional life,” Ho said in a statement. “I’ll depart confident that Bank of Hawaii is in exceptional hands under Jim’s leadership.”

Polk, 59, has been at Bankoh since 1999, and like Ho is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He was unanimously selected by the bank’s 12-member board to succeed Ho as CEO, and will remain company president.

As part of the leadership change, Polk will join the company’s board of directors while one current independent director, Hawai‘i Pacific Health President Ray Vara Jr., will succeed Ho as Bankoh board chair.

Vara, in a statement on behalf of the bank’s board, expressed deep gratitude to Ho for what Vara described as decades of unwavering leadership and dedication.

“His remarkable career, spanning more than 30 years, has been defined by progressive roles that strengthened the company and a steadfast commitment to community causes that have touched countless lives,” Vara said about Ho.

Vara also welcomed Polk as the bank’s 16th CEO since it was founded in 1897, and said Polk’s experience will be invaluable for continued success at the bank, which at the end of 2025 had assets totaling $24.2 billion, including $21.2 billion in deposits, and reported a 2025 profit of
$206 million, up 37% from $150 million in 2024.

“He brings a strong foundation of continuity and strategic execution, coupled with deep institutional knowledge of the bank as well as the business landscape here in Hawaii,” Vara said about Polk.

Ho, born and raised in Hawaii, began his banking career in 1987 at Manufacturers Hanover, a bank holding company in New York.

In 1993, Ho returned home where he was hired as an assistant vice president in commercial banking at Bankoh. He later ascended through management ranks that included becoming the company’s youngest senior vice president in 1999, overseeing corporate banking.

After holding various vice president positions in other areas of bank operations, Ho became chief banking officer in 2006 and then president in 2008.

In addition to leading growth and modernization of the bank, Ho was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for two consecutive terms from 2013 to 2018, and serves on the boards of numerous Hawaii nonprofits.

In 2024, Ho received
$4.3 million in total compensation at Bankoh, including $885,800 in base salary, a
$1.5 million performance-­based award and company stock awards valued at
$1.8 million, according to a report the company filed in March 2025.

Ho plans to serve as a consultant to the bank following his retirement through the end of 2027, and also said he intends to remain engaged with assisting nonprofits, government and businesses locally.

Polk, since joining Bankoh in 1999, has overseen parts of the business including commercial banking, retail lending, deposits, mortgage banking and the bank’s West Pacific region. In 2021, Polk became chief banking officer, and then was named president in 2024. His total compensation in 2024 was about $1.6 million.

“I’m deeply grateful to assume the role of CEO in April, and I’m immensely appreciative of the trust placed in me by Peter and the board,” Polk said in a statement. “I look forward to building upon the strategy that has served this company well for decades, and driving forward a culture of innovation, trust and commitment to the communities who rely upon us.”