Big Oil profits, we pay the price

“On that particular day, the heat index was 119°F (48°C). So just imagine how hot it was. He passed out in one of the homeowner’s yards. But it was the heat that actually killed my husband. The summer now in Dallas is not like it was 20 years ago.” 

Carla Ray Gates is the widow of a US postal worker who died while exposed to extreme heat in Dallas last summer. She is just one of thousands of Americans left grieving by the deadly heatwaves that have gripped the United States in recent years.  

To bring home the scale of this tragedy, this week Global Witness erected fake gas pumps in Dallas – advertising not the cost of gas in nickels and cents, but the number of human lives taken by extreme heat across the US and in Texas and Dallas County last year.  

At least 365 people died from heat last year across the state, according to data provided to Global Witness by the Texas Department of State Health Services – reportedly the highest number since records began in 1989. 

Twenty-one deaths from heat were registered in Dallas County alone in 2023.  

Texans interviewed by Global Witness said politicians aren’t doing enough to protect them from the heat. 

In fact, one politician in particular has done the opposite, actively opposing measures that would provide respite to hardworking Americans laboring in oppressively hot conditions.  

Governor Greg Abbott – who was crowned 2023’s “Champion of the Oil Field” at an energy industry event – gave final approval to legislation in June last year that would eliminate local laws mandating water breaks for outdoor workers on hot days. 

This despite documented deaths related to heat exposure while working outside in Texas.  

According to official campaign finance data compiled and analysed by Open Secrets, Abbott received over $2.5 million in donations from a single energy company in 2022, and $7.5 million from the oil and gas sector that year. 

Climate chaos across the US 

The rest of the country is suffering too. This past summer, millions of Americans have sweltered through staggering heat, which sparked dangerous wildfires, school closures and water rationing. 

Temperatures in California reached as high as 128°F (53.3°C). In New York City, it got so hot that a bridge literally stopped working.  

The US national weather service NOAA says extreme heat is the biggest weather-related killer in the US, causing more deaths every year than hurricanes, tornados or floods. 

And it disproportionately affects low-income Americans, as well as children, senior citizens and those with pre-existing health conditions. 

Last year, according to the US Department of Health, at least 2,300 people died in the country as a result of heat – although these figures are likely to be a vast underestimate given the data is patchy. 

Who’s to blame?  

The fossil fuel industry deserves more blame than anyone for the climate crisis. 

First, burning oil, gas and coal accounts for nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions. Those emissions are heating up the planet and super-charging deadly heatwaves – which are killing thousands of people and making thousands more sick.   

Global heating is also increasing the intensity of extreme weather events – like wildfires, floods and storms.  

Several major fossil fuel firms also knew for decades about the climate impacts of their products, but they ignored scientific advice and instead embarked on various strategies of climate denial and climate delay. 

A 2024 Congressional staff report called "Denial, disinformation and doublespeak" documents in forensic detail how Big Oil sought to conceal the dangers of fossil fuels, block climate action and dodge accountability.    

The fossil fuel industry isn’t short of wealth or power. Last year the top five oil and gas producers in the US made over $74 billion in profits. 

Meanwhile, a mere 20 US politicians have received $8.5 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry so far this election cycle, according to official data compiled and analysed by Open Secrets.

$1.3 million of that has gone to the current Republican nominee Donald Trump and $661,531 to Democrat nominee Kamala Harris. 

Eighteen of the top 20 recipients of oil and gas donations in this period are from the Republican Party.  

Despite this, calls for the fossil fuel industry to be held to account for its role in driving climate chaos are growing. 

This month, lawmakers in America have introduced a bill that would make oil and gas companies make amends for the damage they cause. 

The Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act would create a $1 trillion fund that would give state and local governments more money to fund climate-related disaster relief, care for citizens affected by extreme weather events, and help keep us all cool and safe.  

Senator Jeff Merkley, a co-sponsor of the Bill, told Global Witness: "Fossil fuel companies are fanning the flames of climate chaos, which is fueling extreme weather events, including wildfires and dangerous heatwaves. 

"It is outrageous that these corporate polluters are avoiding responsibility for the harm they cause to the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans. 

"Congress must put the health of our families, our climate and our economy above the wish lists of fossil fuel executives. The fossil fuel industry must pay its fair share for the harms caused by climate chaos.”

Big Oil can afford to pay up. We need our legislators to say: you broke it, you pay for it.  

Write to your Senator and Representative and ask them to add their name to the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act