Burnt building with charred debris in the foreground.

California considers taxing energy companies to fund climate disaster costs

As wildfires continue to rage in Los Angeles, advocates are urging California to adopt a "climate superfund" law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay for climate-related damages, following similar laws in New York and Vermont.

Karen Zraick reports for The New York Times.

In short:

New York and Vermont passed "climate superfund" laws requiring energy companies to pay for climate-related damages, but these laws face legal challenges from the oil industry.
California may revisit a similar bill, as taxpayers currently bear the full cost of wildfires and other climate disasters.
These laws rely on "attribution science," which connects climate damages to specific companies’ emissions.

Key quote:

“Taxpayers are shouldering 100 percent of the burden of climate-fueled disasters.”

— Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity

Why this matters:

Rising climate costs from disasters like wildfires are straining public resources. Shifting financial responsibility to fossil fuel companies could relieve taxpayers and create incentives to reduce emissions. Legal battles will determine whether these efforts succeed.

www.nytimes.com

Environmentalists are struggling, but their struggle isn’t unique to the Trump administration

“No one is going to save us.”

It’s a difficult time to be an environmental advocate. On his first day as president, Trump reversed most of the Biden administration’s climate policies with a series of executive orders. Since then, the administration has frozen funding for clean energy projects and community climate grants, and put most of the U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency’s office of environmental justice staff on administrative leave, and rolled back key environmental protections.

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