It's time to make the polluters pay the price for climate change
Recent exposés of internal documents show that these Big Oil companies have long understood with
Instead of finding new business models or at least warning the public and government officials, these companies conspired to wage a massive disinformation campaign to prevent regulators, investors, and consumers from understanding the risks their products were creating. And now regular people are
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That's not fair. The companies that created this mess should help pay to clean it up. That's exactly what the
Someone will have to pay for the climate harms and extreme weather disasters our communities are already facing, and that we will continue to experience with growing regularity and lethality in the coming years.
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Should all of that burden be borne by working families and local businesses? Or should the corporations that made
By supporting the Climate Superfund Act, Rhode Island lawmakers would ensure that at least some of the costs of climate change fall on those most responsible. Rhode Islanders have already paid too much for Big Oil's reckless conduct. It's time to make the polluters pay.
Aaron Regunberg is a former Rhode Island state representative and director of the Climate Accountability Project at Public Citizen. Cassidy DiPaola is a native Rhode Islander and director at the Make Polluters Pay campaign.
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