Vermont Climate Impact Fee Heads to Governor’s Desk

A new Vermont law modeled on the Environmental Protection Agency’s superfund program would require companies with high emissions to pay for climate-change-induced damages.

According to an article by Maura Barrett and Lucas Thompson for NBC News, “The amounts owed would be determined based on calculations of the degree to which climate change contributed to extreme weather in Vermont, and how much money those weather disasters cost the state. From there, companies’ shares of the total would depend on how many metric tons of carbon dioxide each released into the atmosphere from 1995 to 2024.”

Revenue would go toward “modernizing infrastructure, weatherproofing schools and public buildings, cleaning up from storms, and addressing the public health costs of climate change.”

If passed, the law is expected to face what could be a lengthy process of legal challenges. The American Petroleum Institute, one of the major lobbies for the interests of oil and natural gas companies, sent a letter to the state Senate opposing the bill, saying it “violates equal protection and due process rights by holding companies responsible for the actions of society at large.”