See below for a press release and video from the Center for Climate Integrity. And obviously, if you care in the least bit about having a habitable planet for yourself and your family, make sure you vote Democratic – including Rep. Elaine Luria in VA02 – this election and in every election after that!
New Ads, Poll: VA-02 Voters Support Making Polluters Pay Climate Change Costs
More than two-thirds of voters in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District support suing Big Oil to hold them accountable for climate change costs.
VIRGINIA — A new digital ad launching this week in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District shows candid conversations with real district residents who are asked whether they, or the polluting oil and gas industry, should be responsible for paying billions of dollars to combat sea-level rise along Virginia’s coast.
Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District will need to pay an estimated $11.2 billion on seawalls to protect homes, businesses, and infrastructure from sea-level rise by 2040, according to a study last year from the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) and Resilient Analytics.
In the ad, released today as part of CCI’s “Pay Up Climate Polluters” campaign, a narrator tells residents who live in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, and parts of Norfolk and Hampton, what that cost would mean per-person.
Narrator: “I want to talk to you today about Virginia’s coast. Climate change is creating a lot of issues. Whenever it storms, Virginia is getting bigger and bigger floods.
“So we have a plan to fix all this coastal damage caused by Big Oil companies: Virginia taxpayers are going to pay. So, your share is $15,757.”
Watch the 30 second ad to see their responses.
The campaign in Virginia comes after a July poll found that more than 6 in 10 likely voters in VA-02 support suing oil and gas companies to hold them accountable for their pollution and to require them to pay for damages related to climate change.
The poll found support increased from 61 to 68 percent once voters learned more about the financial impact of climate change and the evidence that fossil fuel companies engaged in widespread climate disinformation campaigns after knowing their products would be “potentially catastrophic.”
Background on Climate Lawsuits:
Since 2017, 20 communities, including city and county governments in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Washington; the states of Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia, have brought lawsuits under different claims to recover billions of dollars damages caused by the oil and gas industry’s deception about climate change. Learn about those other cases here.
The Center for Climate Integrity, a project of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, launched in 2017 to educate the public and policymakers about the massive costs of coping with the damage attributable to global warming and to support efforts to make climate polluters pay their fair share.
For more information on what ExxonMobil and others in the industry knew about climate change and when, check out the Center for Climate Integrity’s “Smoking Guns” document archive or visit PayUpClimatePolluters.org.
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