Essentially, municipal governments want the fossil fuel companies to pay for the costs of dealing with climate change. Taxpayers can’t pay the bill to mitigate climate-related disasters such as coastal and inland flooding; hurricanes, droughts, heat waves and wildfires. The companies are accountable for a substantial portion of those climate crisis-related impacts, because they are responsible for an increase in CO2 emissions; the greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Consequently, the local governments believe they should pick up the cost of protecting public and private property.
—David Hasemeyer