There’s no doubt about it. Voters in Hawai’i want polluters to pay for climate damages.

Like the opioid industry and Big Tobacco before it, oil companies knew for over 50 years that their products would cause irreversible damage to consumers. They were so confident of this fact that they adapted their own infrastructure to protect against the threats of rising seas and stronger storms — even as they spent millions to confuse the science and ensure that the American public and lawmakers were kept in the dark. With Oahu alone facing $13 billion in lost land and infrastructure as a result of rising seas, citizens of Hawai’i need to act now. Hawai’i’s communities cannot and should not pay the price for the damages caused by oil companies whose own scientists predicted “potentially catastrophic’ consequences from continued burning of fossil fuels as early as 1978.

An overwhelming and bipartisan majority of voters in Hawai’i agree. Seventy-five percent of Hawai’i voters support suing polluters to help pay for damages related to climate change and adaptation projects. And when asked whether oil and gas companies should pay for at least some of the costs related to climate change, 86% of voters respond with a resounding “yes.”

The Star Advertiser’s editorial board agrees as well. In an editorial entitled “Climate costs justify suit,” the board argues that just as the tobacco industry was made to pay for the harms resulting from use of their products, damages from lawsuits against Exxon and others would be used to pay off the billions of dollars necessary for Hawai’i residents to prepare for the destructive impacts of climate change.

“An examination of the circumstances suggests that assessing the industry for damages due to its carbon footprint would be a necessary, rational pursuit,” writes the board, maintaining that the industry’s “level of disinformation demands the full exposure of a broad legal challenge. And Honolulu’s step toward securing its share of the damages is one that taxpayers should support.”

During tomorrow’s vote at the Honolulu city council meeting, members will have a chance to offset the burdens of climate change on their constituents and to set an example for elected leaders by holding industry accountable. With the solid backing of their communities, they should take it.

UPDATE: The Honolulu city council has voted unanimously to file suit.

Methodological Notes

The survey was completed by 16,798 registered voters in the United States via online panel from January 22–28, 2019. The sample was weighted based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Voting and Registration Supplement to the Current Population Survey for registered voters in the United States based on age, gender, race, educational attainment, census region, and Hispanic ethnicity. Figures may or may not sum to 100% and this is due to the effects of rounding and weighting. The sample has not been normalized, nor have poststratification weights been applied. The standard deviation of the weights was 0.231115. The maximum weight was 2.7508007. The minimum weight was 0.3651548. Ninety-five percent of weights were between 0.5329689 and 1.5201713. Each reported N-size is the weighted N-size. Each strum’s N-size may or may not add up to the total N-size for any one specific question, and this is due to the effects of rounding and weighting. The 95% credibility interval for this survey is +/- 0.8%, which includes the square root of the design effect (DEFT): 1.0263581. More information on this poll can be found here.