Civil Beat Staff

Stewart Yerton

Stewart Yerton reports on business and the economy for Honolulu Civil Beat. Those are subjects he spent more than a decade reporting on — at publications in New York, New Orleans and Honolulu.

He’s written about the U.S. treasury bond market, the business of big law firms, controversies surrounding the world’s largest gold mine on the island of New Guinea and corruption in the Louisiana casino industry. His reporting on the human cadaver trade, published in The Times-Picayune newspaper, won the Society of American Business Editors & Writers 2005 Best in Business Award for Enterprise Reporting in the large newspaper category.

Stewart’s first big newspaper story, for The Birmingham (Ala.) News, was about a political battle between a small-town mayor and the volunteer firefighters who were trying to oust him from office because of the mayor’s 30-year-old conviction for making moonshine whiskey. The story briefly thrust the tiny town of Brookside, Ala., into the national spotlight when The Washington Post came to write about the comic-gothic brouhaha.

A member of the Hawaii State Bar Association since January 2012, Stewart graduated cum laude from University of Hawaiʻi’s William S. Richardson School of Law, where he earned the environmental law certificate. His paper “Procedural Standing and the Hawaii Superferry Decision: How a Surfer, a Paddler, and an Orchid Farmer Aligned Hawaiʻi’s Standing Doctrine with Federal Principles” was published in the Asian Pacific Law & Policy Journal in 2011. In law school, Stewart externed for U.S. District Court Judge David Alan Ezra and served as the law school’s first Jarman Environmental Law Fellow. Stewart also has worked as an analyst with the Hawaiʻi State Auditor’s office.

When not working, Stewart can often be found practicing yoga and Argentine tango, attempting to play guitar, and chauffeuring his two daughters around Oʻahu.

High Oil Prices Hammer HECO Customers. Here’s Why Flickr

High Oil Prices Hammer HECO Customers. Here’s Why

Average Oʻahu home electric bills are up $60 since June 2025.

He Lanakila No Nā Kānaka: Ua Kaupalena Ka Luna Kānāwai I Nā Uku Hoʻokolokolo No Ke Ahi Hōlapu Ma Maui Screenshot/Hawaii News Now/2024

He Lanakila No Nā Kānaka: Ua Kaupalena Ka Luna Kānāwai I Nā Uku Hoʻokolokolo No Ke Ahi Hōlapu Ma Maui

Ua ʻimi akula nā loio he $1 biliona kālā, e loaʻa nō naʻe he māhele wale nō o ia huinanui.

Why Isn’t Hawaiʻi’s ‘Affordable Housing’ More Affordable? Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Why Isn’t Hawaiʻi’s ‘Affordable Housing’ More Affordable?

A complicated formula results in a price-setting benchmark that’s higher than if it measured only income. The result: More people qualify, but rents are out of reach for many.

HECO Is At War With Governor’s Energy Partner Over Creating New Utility Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2022

HECO Is At War With Governor’s Energy Partner Over Creating New Utility

A Japanese rival wants build a new liquefied natural gas power plant and start a new regulated utility for Oʻahu, ending HECO’s 135-year monopoly.

Public Begins To Weigh In On Offshore LNG Proposal David Croxford/Civil Beat/2023

Public Begins To Weigh In On Offshore LNG Proposal

The public comment period is the first step in the pre-review of JERA Co.’s proposal, pitched as a fossil-fuel bridge to a future of all-renewable resources.

Influential Energy Researcher Quietly Backed By Big Money Climate Group File Photo

Influential Energy Researcher Quietly Backed By Big Money Climate Group

Governor criticizes energy expert as biased, others defend him as sound and scrupulous.

Luxury Real Estate Broker Had Sex With Assistant At Homes He Was Selling Stewart Yerton/Civil Beat/2026

Luxury Real Estate Broker Had Sex With Assistant At Homes He Was Selling

Former assistant says sexual activities took place at 10 to 20 listed properties over four years.

UH Report: Oʻahu Needs More Solar, Not New Power Plants AES Hawaii photo

UH Report: Oʻahu Needs More Solar, Not New Power Plants

UPDATE: Author acknowledges the report contained an error in its solar cost calculations, but stands by the overall findings.