Letter: Oil companies need to pay for the damage they’ve done

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 20, 2026

One of the successes of the recent Maine legislative session was the passage of LD 1870, known as the Make Polluters Pay bill. The law will help fund a study to determine the costs to Maine of climate-related damage from 1995 to 2024. Billion-dollar climate related events in the U.S. have increased alarmingly since 1980 (three events) and 2024 (27 events). I believe the next step will be to create a fund into which major fossil fuel companies will contribute to help pay the costs of the damage caused by burning their products. Fossil fuel companies are currently reaping war profits estimated at $30 million an hour, and we are paying. ~ Tom Mikulka, Cape Elizabeth