The U.S. Conference of Mayors opposed any limits on suing fossil fuel companies over climate change, which would rule out a carbon tax plan supported by industry.
MARIANNE LAVELLE, reports for inside climate news
The mayors of hundreds of U.S. cities called on Congress this week to pass legislation to put a price on carbon emissions, citing the financial and social strains their communities are already experiencing because of climate change.
After some contention, they also voiced opposition to any congressional action that would limit cities’ ability to sue fossil fuel companies for damage linked to climate change. That vote marked a stand by the mayors against one of the key policy trade-offs sought by big oil companies that have backed the idea of carbon pricing.
The carbon pricing resolution, introduced by Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, calls for a price “sufficient enough to reduce carbon emissions in line with ambitions detailed in the Paris Agreement on climate change.”
“We need our elected leaders in Washington to do what many of us as mayors are already doing at home: Move swiftly to adopt policies to mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure the long-term health of our environment,” Biskupski said in a statement.
The two resolutions were among a slew of climate-focused policy positions endorsed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors by voice vote as its annual meeting drew to a close Monday in Honolulu. The mayors also voted in support of a resolution endorsing the idea of a Green New Deal, called for Congress to adopt “a comprehensive national response” to climate change, and voted to oppose President Donald Trump’s plan to freeze vehicle fuel economy standards.
The vote endorsing cities’ right to sue over climate damages came after the two Republican mayors who served as chair and vice chair of the conference’s environment committee, Francis Suarez of Miami and Bryan Barnett of Rochester Hills, Michigan, sought to put off a vote. But the proposed policy statement passed with strong support from mayors of other cities in Florida, where sea level rise is a growing risk, as well as in California, New York and Washington state. Barnett, the incoming president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, stood at the meeting’s final session to offer the resolution for a vote along with the entire package of climate policy position statements.
The resolution supports “cities’ rights and efforts to mitigate climate change damages and protect taxpayers from related adaptation costs.” It opposes any action by Congress or in state legislatures “to limit or eliminate cities’ access to the courts by overriding existing laws or in any way giving fossil fuel companies immunity from lawsuits over climate change-related costs and damages.”
Eight cities, six counties and one state (Rhode Island)—collectively representing approximately 15.4 million people or 4.7 percent of the U.S. population—have filed lawsuits over the past two years seeking to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the costs of climate change, the resolution notes.
