Wisconsin needs to step it up and hold major climate polluters responsible for the damage they have caused. Fossil fuel corporations are polluting our world at the public’s expense, causing increasingly frequent climate disasters. The U.S. government provides an estimated $29.4 billion a year in direct subsidies, according to the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning think tank. While oil companies are gobbling up taxpayer money, the public is footing the bill for disaster cleanup. The good news is that there is a straightforward fix. Wisconsin can follow Vermont and New York’s lead by making the polluters pay. 

Vermont and New York have already created climate superfunds, which hold polluters accountable for their share in the billions of dollars in damages climate change is causing. These funds are accounts into which fossil fuel companies must pay, with the money used to help communities become more resilient to climate change.

The number of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters continues to grow in the U.S., with 23 occurring in just last year, according to Climate Central, a nonprofit organization that researches and reports facts about the changing climate. These disasters are not only happening in the South. They are right here in the Midwest. Wisconsin has been battered by an increasing number of extreme climate events in recent years. From tornadoes to hailstorms, it feels as though Wisconsin cannot catch a break. In April, another devastating hailstorm hit the east side of Madison and damaged hundreds of homes and cars with its baseball-sized hail.

Wisconsinites need to talk to their representatives and let them know that they are fed up with paying for climate-disaster-related damages while the fossil fuel companies earn record profits. The state needs resources to prepare for future climate disasters, and a Wisconsin climate superfund would fill that need. Please urge your state representatives to make polluters pay for climate damages.

Leo Rain is a Madison resident and member of the Madison chapter of Climate Changemakers, which describes itself as a “modern climate advocacy program built for busy, productive people who are looking for meaningful civic engagement.”

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