Vermont Bill Aimed to Charge Fossil Fuel Companies for Extreme Weather Damage to Hold them Accountable
Recently, lawmakers in Vermont passed a bill that is meant to hold big fossil fuel companies accountable by paying for damages created by weather disasters that are spurred by climate change.
photo by Charles Krupa/AP/File
The state modeled the legislation after the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) program which required companies who are responsible for environmental contamination to either clean up or pay to clean it up.
The bill, named the Climate Superfund Act, would, in similar fashion to the EPA’s efforts, would order the big companies to pay for their damages to the environment. The amount owed to the state would be based on calculations by the degree in which climate change contributed to extreme weather in the state and how much damage the disasters cost to repair. From that point, the companies will split the cost depending on the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere in comparison to the other companies. The money received would go towards infrastructure, updating schools and public buildings to handle extreme weather, cleaning up after storms, as well as, public health costs from climate change.
The bill was passed in early April, going through the Vermont Senate with only three opposing votes and has also been approved by the House early this month. This type of legislation is the first to be passed in the United States and because of Vermont’s leading actions, states such as New York, Maryland and Massachusetts have already followed in Vermont’s footsteps.
For the bill to be successful, it is essential that Vermont can assess the connections between humans and extreme weather. This assessment is known as attribution science, which is understanding climate change's role in natural weather patterns and lucky for the environment. In the past 20 years, professionals have sharpened their expertise to be able to pinpoint the degree at which human inference has contributed to the frequency of extreme weather conditions.
In fact, researchers have linked heavy rains to a warmer atmosphere. The New England region of the United States had a 60% increase in heavy precipitation days and Vermont recently had the warmest winter on record.
While this bill seems all positive, there are some critics of the legislation. The three senate votes against the bill came from the belief that the money could go to better use elsewhere. Other professionals expect the law to face challenges in court on the grounds that the law could violate equal protection and due process rights and because it holds companies accountable for a whole society's actions.
However, Anne Watson, a co-sponsor of the bill, has confronted the critics by revealing she will defend the law because the damage of the extreme weather can hold out against scrutiny with the ultimate goals of holding these big companies accountable and taking strides to helping the environment.
