As climate change exacts a mounting toll on California, who should pay for the damage from rising sea levels and increasingly ferocious wildfires, floods and heat waves? Fossil fuel companies would like taxpayers to keep footing the bill while they reap the profits from the burning of coal, oil and methane gas. That’s the concept behind the Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act , a bill in the California Legislature that would create a Superfund-style program to collect money from major fossil fuel companies such as Chevron and ExxonMobil to help the state pay for the environmental damage caused by their products. California would not be the first to act; Vermont lawmakers earlier this month sent a Climate Superfund bill to their governor’s desk . Each would pay a share of the climate costs to the state based on a study to be conducted by the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 21, 2024 21:02 UTC