December, 12 2023, 10:28am EDT
New Poll Shows Strong Support for Making Oil and Gas Companies Pay for Climate Damages
Voters are more inclined to support a candidate that prioritizes legislation to hold oil and gas companies accountable for costs of climate damages
As climate talks come to a close in Dubai, new polling reveals overwhelming American support for making the oil industry help cover the ballooning costs of climate change-fueled disasters. Conducted by Data for Progress and Fossil Free Media, the survey shows voters back laws requiring major oil and gas companies pay for a share of climate damages caused by fossil fuel pollution.
The poll showed that likely voters widely support a bill that would require big oil and gas companies to pay a share of climate costs caused by pollution by a +40-point margin (66% in support compared to just 26% opposed). Support crosses party lines with 81% of Democrats, 61% of Independents, and a majority of Black and Latino voters in favor. The proposal also enjoys strong support from young voters aged 18-29 (68%).
Additionally, 64% of voters said they would be more likely to support a candidate who prioritizes requiring oil and gas companies to pay climate costs linked to their pollution. Just 26% said they would be less likely to support officials backing such a measure.
The findings coincide with “loss and damage” funding taking center stage at COP28, as vulnerable nations demand wealthy polluting countries pay compensation for their outsized role causing climate impacts now devastating low-income regions. Mirroring these calls for historic emitters to pay up, two-thirds of American voters support legislation compelling Big Oil to chip in on escalating climate costs linked to their products.
"In a resounding call for accountability, two-thirds of the American people support legislation demanding industry titans like Exxon and Shell shoulder their fair share of the climate damages inflicted by fossil fuels,” said Cassidy DiPaola, Communications Director at Fossil Free Media. “With COP spotlighting the towering price tag of climate change, voters resoundingly endorse fossil fuel companies contributing their fair share to address a crisis they helped manufacture and still refuse to help fix."
Members of Congress have considered legislation like this before, including the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act, that was introduced in 2021 by Senator Chris Van Hollen and joined by Senators Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey, Sheldon Whitehouse, Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley . As support for legislation like this grows, groups like Make Polluters Pay, a national campaign focused on holding Big Oil accountable for their role in the climate crisis, are amplifying calls to Congress and the President to make this legislation possible.
Fossil Free Media is a nonprofit media lab that supports the movement to end fossil fuels and address the climate emergency.
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