07/08/2025
Make Polluters Pay campaign volunteer and activist, Steve Wenner stopped by the Oceanside Drive seawall repair project in Scituate, MA. The town was only able to secure half of the $12 million necessary to replace a 1,400-ft section of the wall -- a height that is already insubstantial in the face of increasingly powerful storms.
Who should pay for this seawall repair and enhancement project? Should it be the responsibility of the residents who live along this street (after all, they are the only ones who will directly benefit)? Perhaps all the residents of Scituate should share the cost? Or, maybe all the taxpayers of Massachusetts should chip in. Or, should the taxpayers of Ohio, Oklahoma and the other states of our Union collectively pay for this coastal flood protection, since the burning of fossil fuels in our country and elsewhere is the cause of climate change and the resulting increased risk of floods?
No! It is not fair to force taxpayers to pay! The fossil fuel industry has known for over 50 years from its own scientists that its products were changing the climate. But, they hid these dangers from the public and engaged in disinformation campaigns so that they could continue to make obscene profits.
It’s time to join Vermont, New York and other states to “Make Polluters Pay” and pass the Massachusetts Climate Superfund Bill. This would require the largest fossil fuel corporations to pay into a fund for their share of the climate damages that resulted from the greenhouse gas pollution from their products (coal, oil and methane gas).
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