Make Polluters Pay

Thanks to decades of pollution, Virginia now experiences “natural” disasters on a yearly basis. Just this year, Hurricane Helene inflicted billions of dollars of damage to Southwest Virginia, upending lives and livelihoods.

Worsening extreme weather comes with a massive cost to Virginians, local governments, and our environment. Right now, the burden of paying for disaster relief falls onto taxpayers, rather than the corporate giants responsible for fueling the climate crisis. It’s time to make polluters pay to clean up their messes.

The Extreme Weather Relief Act would allow the state to calculate the cost of climate damages to the Commonwealth and recoup those costs from Big Oil to pay for disaster relief and to create resilient clean energy infrastructure that will future-proof our grid for accelerating extreme weather.

Email your legislators. Tell them to support the Extreme Weather Relief Act!

This email will be sent to all your state legislators in Virginia. Please personalize!

Subject:

Dear {contact_data~title} {contact_data~lastName},

I am reaching out to ask for your support for the Extreme Weather Relief Act (SB1123/HB2233).

Now that the effects of climate change are well upon us, Virginia faces dangerous extreme weather events every year. This past summer, Hurricane Helene inflicted billions of dollars of damage to Southwest Virginia. That comes on the heels of the hottest year on record and several years in a row of devastating flooding in Southwest and across the state.

But every year, the state has little choice but to appropriate taxpayer money or pull from other essential programs to fund relief efforts. These costs should be shouldered by the major polluters that have knowingly exacerbated the climate crisis and the extreme weather that comes with it. The Extreme Weather Relief Act would shift the economic burden of disaster relief from taxpayers to those responsible - major Big Oil companies.

As your constituent, I urge you to support the  Extreme Weather Relief Act and make climate accountability a priority.

Sincerely,

{user_data~First name} {user_data~Last name},
{user_data~Address line 1}
{user_data~City}

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