1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

As a constituent, I am writing to urge you to support SB2981/HB4773, the Climate Change Superfund Act. This bill would require top polluters to start paying their fair share of the climate costs that Illinois faces, based on their proportion of heat-trapping gas emissions from 2000-2024. The funds raised will go towards important climate adaptation projects throughout Illinois, with 40 percent of funds designated for projects benefiting underresourced communities. As the planet continues to warm at an alarming pace, I am concerned about the impacts that climate change will have on my community, and the costs of mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis. Already, Illinois is facing climate impacts such as severe storms and flooding, hotter days, and exposure to wildfire smoke. In recent years we have seen record numbers of billion-dollar disasters in our state. It’s not fair for everyday people and local governments to bear these costs alone. The fossil fuel industry—whose products are primarily responsible for global warming, and which has for decades misled and deceived the public and lawmakers about the dangers—should pay its fair share of the costs. You can read more about the fossil fuel industry’s decades of deceit in a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists: https://www.ucs.org/resources/decades-deceit. According to recent polling, a majority of voters believe that oil and gas companies that misled the public should be held accountable. With the climate crisis worsening, people and the planet cannot afford further delay in holding these companies to account for the consequences of their actions. I urge you to support the Illinois climate superfund proposal and do everything you can to hold polluters accountable for their role in the climate crisis.