Will Taxpayers Foot the Bill to Protect Oil Industry from Climate Change?

It’s a rare proposal indeed that sparks criticism from both the Sierra Club and the libertarian and fiscally conservative Cato Institute. But the plan to use nearly $4 billion of federal taxpayer dollars to shore up coastal defenses along Texas’s Gulf Coast has done just that.

The oil industry wants taxpayers to pay for projects to
protect its facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast from
climate change-driven storms.

That plan, a small-scale version of the long-discussed Ike Dike, would protect three areas along the coast against rising sea levels and devastating climate change-fueled storms, specifically to shield oil and gas terminals, refineries and petrochemical facilities—the same industries that have overwhelmingly contributed to climate change. What galls critics is that the industries being protected have been asked to put up nothing.

At the same time, voters in Harris County, which includes the city of Houston, last week voted to shoulder $2.5 billion worth of bond debt. Some will be used to match federal spending on flood control and mitigation projects, roughly a quarter-billion will be used to mount the largest buyout of flood vulnerable homes in American history, and some will be used to lure federal funds for a not-yet finalized menu of projects.

Read the Climate Liability News story by Seamus McGraw - “Will Taxpayers Foot the Bill to Protect Oil Industry from Climate Change?”