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A new Vermont bill would create a “climate superfund.”
Around the world, governments, nonprofits and even some everyday people are coming up with strategies to force fossil fuel companies to pay for their contributions to climate change.
The European Union is pushing countries to come up with a global approach, dozens of countries and states have passed taxes on carbon emissions, and a growing number of citizens are filing lawsuits against the oil and gas industry.
But what if governments could simply charge companies for the costs of climate change? These efforts are often described as “climate superfunds,” a reference to the 1980 U.S. law that forced companies to pay for toxic waste cleanup.
At least four states are considering versions of these bills, and tiny Vermont may soon be the first state to pass one. The idea behind the Vermont bill is simple: the state would calculate the damage caused by climate change and charge companies according to the share of emissions they produced.
Vermont’s Senate passed a measure on Tuesday and it will now head toward a vote in the House, where it has support from at least two thirds of members. You may remember that it was one of several states in the Northeast that suffered from devastating floods last summer, killing at least 10 people and causing $2.2 billion in damages.
“Taxpayers alone can’t bear these costs,” said Anthony Iarrapino, a lobbyist who garnered support for the bill for the Conservation Law Foundation. “It’s only fair to look to these immensely profitable corporations whose products and activities are the root causes of the crisis we are in and say, ‘You should pay your fair share and help clean up the mess.’”
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