Summary
Fossil fuel companies successfully lobbied to block California’s 2024 Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act, which aimed to make major polluters fund climate disaster prevention and recovery.
Chevron, Western States Petroleum Association, and others spent over $80M on lobbying, claiming the bill would raise energy costs and duplicate existing carbon taxes.
The Los Angeles wildfires, now California’s second deadliest, have reignited interest in the bill.
Advocates suggest revised legislation to avoid requiring two-thirds legislative approval.
Critics accuse big oil of evading accountability amid record profits.
*hubris* but fair points.
And yet all of that was made possible and in some cases inevitable by the incessant flogging of oil by Big Oil.
At the end of the day, they knew 50 years ago they’d be destroying the environment and 40 years ago they decided not to tell anyone. This is just the latest, most graphic representation of that assault on the global climate.
Whoops.