News & Analysis
May 3, 2021
While many people wouldn’t consider Wisconsin to be on the front lines of climate change, people in both the urban and rural areas are already facing the fallout from warmer temperatures and increased rainfall — with increasingly devastating consequences for agriculture and public health.
These impacts are a direct result of the oil and gas industry’s decades of climate denial and disinformation. As early as the 1960s, oil and gas executives knew that burning fossil fuels would cause catastrophic climate change. Instead of sounding the alarm and adjusting course, they spend millions of dollars to lie to the public about what was to come, and thwart any proactive climate policy. Now, the people of Wisconsin are left holding the bag.
A recent survey shows that a majority of Wisconsin voters agree that the corporate polluters most responsible for the climate crisis should be held accountable for this deception, as well as the costs associated with protecting communities across the state.
In a new poll conducted by Climate Nexus for the Center for Climate Integrity, 82% of Wisconsinites said that oil and gas companies should be held accountable for all or some of the costs associated with climate change, and 60% of voters supported suing oil and gas companies to hold them accountable for misleading the public about the harms they knew their products would cause the climate and our communities. Finally, a majority of Wisconsinites — 58% — are ready for the state to take action, and would support the Attorney General filing a climate fraud suit.
Wisconsin voters are concerned about climate change, with 73% indicating they are “worried” or “very worried” about the issue; 77% believe that climate change will harm future generations.
Most Wisconsinites also want corporations — particularly oil and gas companies — to be doing more to combat climate change. Forty-one percent of voters believe that corporations should be doing “much more” on climate change, and 71% say they should be doing “much” or “somewhat” more. Similarly, 74% believe that oil and gas companies are not paying their fair share of the costs of climate change. Finally, 35% of respondents indicated that oil and gas companies should be most responsible for paying to modernize and upgrade Wisconsin’s infrastructure to withstand the impacts of climate change.
These results are similar to survey results in other states, including North Carolina, Maine, Oregon, and Hawai’i.
The growing drumbeat for accountability can’t be ignored. Will Wisconsin be the next state to take a stand?
