The effort to hold the oil industry financially responsible for the climate damage it caused was extended to the Congress when a package of bills designed to “Make Polluters Pay” was unveiled at a news conference last week.
According to the representatives, the proposals addressed critical issues facing Americans today, including measures to combat price gouging by oil companies, eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, and implement strategies to mitigate increasingly frequent extreme weather events linked to climate change, all while holding the largest oil companies accountable for climate damages and decades of deception.
The lawmakers highlighted the industry’s history of deceiving the public about what oil companies’ scientists had discovered about the impact of burning fossil fuels, like coal, oil, and gas.
It is clear that for the better half of the late 20th Century, oil companies knew that burning fossil fuels was heating the planet. According to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times, for example, a leading Exxon researcher told an audience of engineers at a conference in 1991 that greenhouse gases are rising “due to the burning of fossil fuels. Nobody disputes this fact.” The senior Exxon researcher went on to add that there was no doubt those levels would double by the middle of the 21st century. Unfortunately, he was correct.
Nevertheless, the industry championed a climate change denial campaign, opposing regulations to curtail global warming, funding groups opposing climate change treaties, and undermining the public opinion about the science behind global warming. Their success has pushed the planet to the brink.
As a result, we’re racing the clock. Worldwide treaties have been advanced, national legislation has been debated, state laws have been passed — all to begin to move the world from its reliance on fossil fuels for power and instead to rely on alternative renewable forms.
Yet the staggering climate damage costs facing the nation have not been seriously tackled.
A quick review of the financial costs facing New York State alone points out how big a hit to taxpayers those expenses will be.
Previously once-in-a-generation weather events are becoming more frequent and deadly. In 2022, Winter Storm Elliot in Buffalo killed 47 people. The year before, Hurricane Ida killed 16 New Yorkers — many drowned in their own homes. In New York City, 350 residents die every year from heat-related deaths. In the last month, four tornados hit upstate central New York destroying homes and killing one person. In addition to the human costs, there are staggering financial costs as well.
It’s going to cost hundreds of billions of dollars to shore up New York against the impacts of climate change — some estimates put the price tags at $52 billion to protect New York City Harbor, $75-$100 billion to protect Long Island, and $55 billion for climate costs across the rest of the state. The state Comptroller has predicted that more than half of local governments’ costs will soon be attributable to the climate crisis. Currently, these costs are falling on taxpayers, even though the biggest oil companies, largely responsible for the policy gridlock that kept the nation and the world from tackling the growing climate menace, are booming and still making enormous profits.
New York, which accounts for the fourth largest population and the third largest state economy in the nation, faces big climate costs. And when you add 49 other states — including mega states like California, Florida, and Texas — it’s fair to say that the staggering climate costs facing New York alone are miniscule to those the nation faces. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, America has already spent nearly $3 trillion since 1980 to cover climate disasters and those costs will continue to rise as the planet continues to heat up.
The Congressional “Make Polluters Pay” event acknowledges the rising climate costs and places some of the financial burden on those most responsible for the situation — the largest oil companies. Given the legislative gridlock in Washington, no one expects that package to be taken up soon. Once again, it’s up to the states to lead the way.
Fortunately, the New York Assembly and Senate recently passed the Climate Change Superfund Act. This legislation will put the largest oil companies on the hook for cleaning up the mess that their actions created. It requires the companies most responsible for historical greenhouse gas emissions to pay a share of $3 billion assessed annually for each of the next 25 years to address the environmental damages they helped cause. It does so in a way that should not impact consumers’ costs.
Vermont approved similar legislation, which became law without opposition by Republican Governor Phil Scott. Here in New York, Governor Hochul will face her decision once the Climate Change Superfund Act makes its way to her desk for approval.
New York should show the nation how best to finance projects that both protect the public from future storms as well as pay for the damage done. New Yorkers will soon see whether Governor Hochul chooses to shift some of the climate damage costs from taxpayers to Big Oil or whether she leaves New Yorkers shouldering the entire costs.
Blair Horner is executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
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