Hawai’i Youth Stands for States’ Rights in Petitioner Declaration
N.N., Youth Petitioner in Venner v. EPA.
May 20, 2026
N.N. (a minor) lives on O'ahu and cares deeply about Hawai‘i's landmark Navahine climate settlement, which requires decarbonization of transportation in Hawaiʻi by 2045. He assisted with implementation of the settlement as a former intern at Hawai‘i Department of Transportation. Through learning about the settlement, he became aware of his rights under the Hawaiʻi Constitution to a clean and healthful environment and to protection of all natural resources—rights the federal government is now undermining.
N.N. is a youth petitioner in Venner v. EPA, a constitutional petition asking a federal court to reverse and vacate EPA's rule rescinding the 2009 Endangerment Finding (Repeal Rule), which for more than 15 years recognized that greenhouse gas pollution threatens public health and welfare, and challenging the rollback of vehicle emission standards that have been in place since 2012.
The excerpt below is from N.N’s declaration filed on May 20, 2026, in support of the petitioners' motion for stay, which asks the court to pause the Repeal Rule while the youth’s petition is decided on the merits. His testimony details for the court how the Repeal Rule will hurt him and his state’s ability to achieve its commitments.
“I am a 16-year-old citizen of the United States and a resident of Waipahu, Hawai‘i, which is on the island of Oʻahu. I am a junior at Waipahu High School. I plan to go to law school after college.
It was through my involvement with the Punahou Sustainability Fellowship that I first learned about the case, Navahine F. v. Hawai‘i Department of Transportation. In Navahine, youth of Hawai‘i sued the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation (HDOT) over HDOT’s policies and practices implementing the state’s transportation system that caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation to increase.
From the Navahine case, I learned that the Hawaiʻi Constitution protects my right to a clean and healthful environment, which my state Supreme Court has declared includes a right to a life-sustaining climate system.
I also learned that the Hawaiʻi Constitution protects all natural resources, including land, air, and water, for my benefit and the benefit of future generations. There are Hawaiʻi statutes that mandate a statewide target to reach net negative GHG emissions by 2045 and for zero GHG emissions across all transportation modes. My understanding is that this state statute mandates Hawaiʻi to fully decarbonize transportation within the state by 2045.
I know that in 2024, the Navahine case settled. I am extremely familiar with the Navahine settlement agreement because I spent the summer of 2025 working at HDOT in the office tasked with implementing the settlement. My settlement-implementation work at HDOT focused on economic strategies for reducing emissions and sustainable aviation fuel. I haven’t quite memorized the Navahine settlement agreement, but pretty close. The settlement agreement is attached to my declaration as Exhibit 1. My understanding is that the settlement agreement is binding under state law.
The Navahine settlement agreement recognized Hawai‘i youths’ rights under article XI, section 9 of the Hawaiʻi Constitution to a clean and healthful environment. This right includes me because I am a youth born and raised in Hawaiʻi.
The settlement agreement also recognized Hawai‘i’s public trust obligations under article XI, section 1 of the Hawaiʻi Constitution to conserve and protect “Hawaiʻi’s natural beauty and all natural resources, including land, water, air, minerals and energy sources” “[f]or the benefit of present and future generations.” The people who benefit from this include me because I am part of the present generation in Hawai‘i.
Through the settlement, HDOT committed to replacing all GHG-emitting ground, marine, and inter-island air transportation with zero-emission alternatives by 2045. This is a huge goal because transportation is over 50% of Hawai‘i’s GHG emissions.
…
I was diagnosed with pneumonia in 2024. Since then, I’ve had more difficulty breathing when I’m in an environment such as my school that has dense vehicle traffic and all of the pollution that comes with it from gas and diesel vehicles. The more fossil fuel vehicles that are on the road, the more pollution I will have to breathe.
My personal health will be negatively impacted by EPA’s Repeal Rule and elimination of GHG emission standards for vehicles. The increases in GHG emissions due to the Repeal Rule, means my body will be exposed to more, and not less, air pollution. My health will be worse off if the Repeal Rule stands and I have to breathe more pollution from gas and diesel vehicles into my lungs.
Although the Hawai‘i Constitution and our courts recognize my right to a life-sustaining climate system, the Repeal Rule infringes upon that constitutional right because it exposes me to more air pollution from motor vehicles and makes it harder, if not impossible, for HDOT to comply with its commitments under the Navahine settlement agreement which are designed to protect my state constitutional rights.
As climate change worsens, my island home and community are at greater risk. I have felt Hawaiʻi getting hotter over my lifetime. The increasing heat limits my ability to exercise outside, which is important for training for wrestling and judo. The heat has gotten so bad that I get heat rash more regularly now, causing my body to be itchy and break out in hives, which makes it difficult to participate in the contact sports that I love.
…
I am proud to be from a state that values my constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment and provides strong protections for the natural resources of the state. I plan to go away for college and then return to Hawaiʻi permanently to start my career and raise my future family here. My hope is that my children will grow up in a Hawaiʻi where we have achieved the zero-emissions target required by our state laws and the Navahine settlement agreement, and where the health of Hawai‘i’s people and precious natural resources will be thriving. That is the kind of state I want to raise my children in and the legacy I want to leave them and my grandchildren one day.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency should live up to its name and not take actions that make air pollution and climate change worse. The EPA should be protecting the environment and me. If it cannot do that, it should at least avoid making it harder for my state to meet my state’s legal obligations and commitments that are designed to protect me.”
Read N.N’s full declaration here.