Climate activists on Wednesday trotted out a big pink pig on Burlington's Church Street to launch their latest campaign against big oil.

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group was behind the attention-grabbing stunt in front of Burlington City Hall, where the 20-foot-long inflatable oinker known as "Pignelopi" rose above those gathered for a press conference. The group was launching its summer canvasing effort to rally support for a bill to make oil and gas companies pay the state for the damage caused — and expected to be caused — by emissions from fossil fuel sales.

“It’s time to finally make big oil pay to clean up the mess that they have created,” said Paul Burns, VPIRG’s executive director.

Big oil companies such as ExxonMobil and Shell knew about climate change decades ago but engaged in persistent disinformation campaigns to continue profiting off the sales of their products, Burns said.
Those sales have directly contributed to the “global warming disaster” plaguing Vermont in the form of floods and other climate-related health and environmental damage, Burns said. Meanwhile, he added, oil companies have raked in record profits.



“We’re here today because we think Vermonters should not have to foot the whole bill for damages caused by climate change,” Burns said. “We’re here because we think big, greedy oil companies should pay their fair share, too.”

The bill, which will be introduced next legislative session, is modeled after one introduced in New York recently. It would create a “Vermont Climate Superfund” that would raise about $2.5 billion from major oil companies over the next 25 years.

The money could be used to rebuild Vermont’s roads, bridges and water systems, relocate homes out of floodplains, or even insulate homes against rising temperatures, Burns said.

Lauren Hierl, executive director of Vermont Conservation Voters, said the damage is already evident in state infrastructure. Changes to the freeze-thaw cycle are leading to more water main breaks in Montpelier, such as one last week that led to a boil-water notice for a large portion of the city.

“Right now, local Vermont taxpayers are on the hook for paying for climate change’s inevitable and rising costs,” said Hierl, who is also on the Montpelier City Council.She noted that the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s superfund program holds polluters accountable for cleaning up their messes, such as Burlington’s Pine Street Barge Canal.

It took lawsuits, meanwhile, to force Saint-Gobain, a company that polluted groundwater in Bennington, to compensate victims and the state, she said.

“The right thing is not always the easy thing to do,” Hierl said.

Burns said the fees would be based on the amount of greenhouse gasses attributable to the oil companies' sales in the state over time. That would prevent the costs from being passed on to consumers in the way a carbon tax might be, Burns said.

The inflatable protest pig was made by Gene Stilp of Harrisburg, Pa., who said "Pignelopi" has been featured at events in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and on New York City's Wall Street over many years.