https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/eco-warriors-turn-up-heat-wallet-fund-climate-agenda
By Daniel Turner , E.J. Antoni Fox News
Excerpt: If you think your energy bills are high now, just wait until the climate activists get their way. They’ve launched a massive, nationwide campaign of lawfare which, if successful, would raise the average household’s annual energy bill by almost $1,500 per year and nearly $15,000 over a decade. The Supreme Court is currently hearing one such case (Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County).
The campaign essentially has three avenues of attack: tort litigation, state “climate superfund” statutes and federal legislation. Each category represents enormous charges on upstream suppliers which, of course, will then move downstream to households at the pump and the meter.
Over 30 lawsuits demand that energy companies pay for unproven impacts on global climate change, with filings by 11 states, D.C. and dozens of cities. New York and Vermont simply legislated this liability into existence through climate superfund laws — the former capped at $75 billion with the latter leaving liabilities uncapped.
A dozen other states have tried similar penalties, as have members of Congress with the so-called Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act, which would confiscate $1 trillion over 10 years. Supporters insist none of this will hit families’ wallets, that assessments target past production and that shareholders will pay for it. Those claims don’t stand up to the facts.
Businesses must pass costs to consumers, and that’s exactly what will happen here, regardless of whether some government bureaucrat decrees specific costs to be from yesteryear. Those same firms must also price future risk, which would increase dramatically if business could be retroactively punished for legal activity 30 years ago.
For many power plants and energy infrastructure projects, which take decades to pay off and recoup initial investments, this additional risk means such projects may never even be undertaken. For those that do move forward, firms must charge consumers higher prices to counter the additional risk of fickle government potentially imposing massive fines.
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