Who should pay for future climate disasters?
Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole suggested that fossil fuel companies should bear some financial responsibility in a national press conference last week.
Keohokalole introduced Senate Bill 3000. It would authorize the state attorney general to bring a civil action on behalf of the people of the state to recover losses from any responsible parties after a climate disaster.
"The way I try and explain it to my constituents is that the cost of climate is coming due, and it's starting to come due in the form of not just these catastrophic events, but in your insurance premiums," Keohokalole said.
"It's not only our responsibility in our respective communities to try and figure out how to deal with this crisis. It should be the responsibility of the entities who profited off of the situation that they knowingly created and helped perpetuate."
Senate Bill 3000 was voted down in a Ways and Means Committee hearing earlier this month. Keohokalole said in the press conference that he believes that “aggressive lobbying” by the American Petroleum Institute helped to kill the bill.
