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Climate change is hitting Vermont hard and costing us billions. People are hurting. Companies are closing. Towns don’t have the money to keep up. But while we pay, some are getting rich.
Big Oil companies like ExxonMobil and Shell knew decades ago that their products would disrupt the climate, but instead of acting responsibly they put their profits above our environment, our economy, and people’s lives. Last year, the biggest fossil fuel companies raked in more than $200 billion in profits while charging Vermonters some of the highest prices in history for heating and transportation fuels. It’s time to hold these Big Oil companies accountable and require them to pay a fair share of the costs to clean up the damage they have caused.
It is a value most Vermonters learned in kindergarten: if you make a mess, you help clean it up.
And what a mess Big Oil has made. Consider the events of the last few months just here in the Green Mountains. After one of the warmest winters on record1, Vermonters have suffered through one extreme weather event after another, including:
- Ski areas closing in January due to warm weather – sending visitors and workers home;
- An early season drought and late May frost that cost farmers millions;2
- Smoke from Canadian wildfires that forced Vermonters with asthma indoors;3,4 and
- Catastrophic flooding so bad it will take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to recover.
But if you think this year has been bad, unfortunately, it’s going to get worse. As Vermont Congresswoman Becca Balint put it, 2023 gave us “one of the hottest summers of our lives, and one of the coolest summers for the rest of our lives.”5
A recent study released by Rebuild by Design, the Atlas of Disaster, found that Vermonters suffered through 17 federal climate disaster events between 2011 and 2021, the seventh most of any state. And per capita spending on climate disaster recovery is the 5th highest in the country.6
Those costs are adding up … fast.
As a state, we’re still reeling from the expenses of Tropical Storm Irene more than a decade ago. This year’s events will cost millions more. And UVM researchers estimate that flooding alone will cost Vermonters $5.2 billion dollars in the decades ahead.7
Vermont taxpayers shouldn’t be the only ones paying. As State Treasurer Mike Pieciak says, “it only seems fair to ask those who most significantly contributed to the problem to help foot the bill.”
Thankfully, there are models for making polluters pay. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, which was established by Congress in 1980, has cleaned up over 1,000 toxic waste sites across the country, including many in Vermont. The expense of those cleanups is paid by the companies that caused the pollution – not the people who happen to live nearby. And Vermont has its own hazardous waste management laws that hold companies that pollute our water and soil responsible for cleanup.
Using these successful programs as precedent, the Vermont General Assembly can “join other states including New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland that are working right now to establish Climate Superfund programs that would require Big Oil to cover a fair share of the costs of climate change.
It’s common sense that these corporations should pay, and a Vermont Climate Superfund:
- Forces the largest fossil fuel corporations like ExxonMobil and Chevron to pony up without impacting the small fuel dealers and gas stations in Vermont.
- Makes it extraordinarily difficult for Big Oil to pass their costs onto consumers since they will each be billed based on their historic emissions and they’ll be competing against local firms that are not charged.
- Saves Vermonters money. The expenses a Climate Superfund would cover are inevitable. Either we make Big Oil pay or the bill falls squarely on the shoulders of Vermont taxpayers.
New York State has advanced this concept the furthest, with legislation passing the State Senate last June. That bill would recoup $75 billion from Big Oil over the next 25 years and pay for infrastructure repairs, disaster relief, preventative healthcare, building weatherization and air conditioning, and water cleanup. More than 35% of appropriations would be reserved for disadvantaged communities across the Empire State.
This is an opportunity to level the playing field and make Vermont more affordable.
As Bernie Sanders said when he introduced federal legislation that would make Big Oil pay for climate pollution, “For decades, the fossil fuel industry knowingly destroyed our planet to pad their short-term profits. We must stand up to the greed of the fossil fuel industry, make fossil fuel corporations pay for the irreparable damage they have done to our communities and our planet, transform our energy system and lead the world in combating climate change.”
Vermonters interested in saving the planet and saving some money are invited to join the Make Big Oil Pay campaign, take the survey, and attend a Community Action Tour event in their county.
VTDigger does not endorse or warrant the accuracy of political or advocacy messages.
