As of today, Earth Day, more than 50 elected officials have signed a letter urging lawmakers to make oil and gas companies bear the cost of climate change.

The California Polluters Pay Superfund, which goes before the state Senate Judiciary Committee today, would assess a fee on large oil and gas companies to pay for programs that mitigate damage from climate change.

Ahmad Zahra, a council member in Fullerton, signed onto the letter sponsored by the group Elected Officials to Protect America.

"Throughout the years, these large oil companies were really not necessarily telling the truth about air pollution," Zahra pointed out. "Just like we've seen in oil spills and ground pollution, the responsible party has to pay for it."

The Western States Petroleum Association opposes the bill, saying it would lead to higher gas prices. The bill directs the California Environmental Protection Agency to determine how much climate change has cost the state from 1990 to 2024. Federal data show California has suffered 46 natural disasters linked to climate change since 1980, each resulting in more than $1 billion in losses, with $250 billion from the Los Angeles firestorm alone.

Marisol Rubio, a council member in San Ramon, said 40% of the funds would be directed to low-income communities most affected by fossil fuel pollution.

"Those funds can then be used to better manage and correct and abate the pollution that not only already exists but that will come inevitably in the future, until we are able to be independent of fossil fuels," Rubio explained.

Advocates said right now, everyday Californians foot the bill for climate change in the form of higher taxes, insurance rates and utility bills, as well as via medical expenses for pollution-related illness.

Congress is set to claw back $6.5 billion in climate-related Inflation Reduction Act investments to help pay for the Trump administration's priorities, including tax cuts and mass deportations but critics said the move would cost jobs and blunt the administration's goal of energy dominance by reducing domestic energy sources.

Saul Levin, campaigns and political director for the Green New Deal Network, said if passed, $580 million in funding would disappear from Colorado's 4th district, represented by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.

"In the 3rd District, which is represented by (Republican) Jeff Hurd, there's an estimated $1 billion that has been invested through the IRA," Levin pointed out. "Regardless of people's exact politics, most people don't want that money to be pulled out."

The House Ways and Means panel plans to revoke tax credits for electric vehicle purchases and home energy efficiency improvements, according to Reuters. The House Energy panel's plan would cut funding for limiting methane emissions at oil and gas facilities, reporting greenhouse gas emissions, reducing air pollution near schools and expanding electric grids to bring wind and solar power to homes and businesses.

Philip Rossetti, senior energy fellow for the think tank R Street Institute, believes the subsidies for clean energy were too costly but did reduce climate pollution. He added the investments will need better transmission infrastructure to be effective.

"Princeton University did a study on this, and they estimated that about 80% of the emission benefits in the electric power sector from the IRA subsidies are locked behind additional transmission infrastructure buildout," Rossetti explained.

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to put an end to the Biden-Harris administration's efforts to mitigate climate change. Levin noted current proposals in Congress do not cut direct subsidies to fossil fuel companies.

"Even though for decades it's been really clear that there's a huge public health risk to using fossil fuels, we're still giving out subsidies to the tune of $170 billion to oil and gas companies and CEOs," Levin emphasized.


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After a devastating tornado ripped through southeastern Kentucky last Friday and Saturday, Gov. Andy Beshear asked for a federal disaster declaration and has spoken to the heads of U.S. Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At a news conference over the weekend, Beshear said the current death toll in Southern Kentucky is 18, with victims ranging in age from 25-76. Seventeen of the deaths were in Laurel County and one in Pulaski County. He noted he expected the number to rise.

"Among those killed was major Roger Leslie Leatherman of the Laurel County Fire Department," Beshear reported. "The major was in public service for 39 years, and he died doing what first responders do every day, risking his own life for our safety."

Leatherman was fatally injured while responding to the tornado, according to the Laurel County Fire Department. Beshear has declared a state of emergency and activated price-gouging laws to keep costs down during the crisis. People who know of someone who is missing or unaccounted for in the regions hit by the tornado should speak to authorities at Faith Assembly of God Church in London.

Beshear also urged the need for preparedness, recommending Kentuckians equip themselves with emergency weather radios.

"I've now been governor for at least 14 federally-declared disasters, 13 of them weather, and this is one of the worst," Beshear emphasized. "It's one of the worst in terms of the loss of human life. It's one of the worst in terms of damage."

The disaster comes on the heels of nationwide staffing cuts to the National Weather Service, which have left at least four offices, including one in Jackson, Kentucky, without an overnight forecaster. The Weather Service has 122 forecasting offices operating around the clock to track regional weather patterns.

This story is based on original reporting by Liam Niemeyer and Jamie Lucke for the Kentucky Lantern.


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Nine in 10 people in Virginia and across the globe are worried about climate change and want governments to do something about it, according to a new survey but they mistakenly assume others do not share their view.

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, called it a perception gap.

"The average person believes that other people in their own country tend not to worry about climate change that much," Leiserowitz reported. "When, in fact, the majority of people in most countries do worry about climate change."

The gap in perception has real-world policy implications. In the U.S., almost 80% of congressional staffers underestimated their constituents' support for reducing climate pollution, sometimes by more than 50 percentage points.

Leiserowitz stressed helping more people understand they are not in the minority could unlock a social tipping point, moving leaders to act.

He pointed to one example where 96% of liberal Democrats and 78% of conservative Republicans supported helping farmers protect and restore soil to absorb more carbon dioxide. He acknowledged progress is stymied by misperceptions.

"If your perception is that Republicans are absolutely against climate policy, then many people might then conclude -- especially if you're a policymaker -- that we shouldn't be taking action," Leiserowitz outlined. "When, in fact, there's overwhelming support, even among conservative Republicans."

Decades of misinformation campaigns, aiming to protect fossil-fuel company profits, play a big role in perception gaps. Leiserowitz added gaps also persist because any two individuals, not knowing what the other thinks, are likely to avoid topics they believe are controversial, including climate change.

"That leads neither of us to talk about it," Leiserowitz observed. "Well, now expand that to 300 million people, and you can see that we start slipping down this 'spiral of silence.' Nobody talks about it, so nobody talks about it. Which means nobody talks about it."


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