To the Editor:
In December 2024, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Climate Change Superfund Act, a law that requires fossil fuel producers with ties to New York to pay into a “climate superfund” that funds climate-related infrastructure projects. The New York law will collect $75 billion from New York’s worst polluters over the next quarter century.
A similar bill pending in New Jersey, the “Climate Superfund Act” (A3735/S2338), would require major New Jersey polluters to pay $50 billion over the next 20 years into a similar climate superfund. This fund would pay for climate resiliency and infrastructure projects, helping build New Jersey’s resilience to the climate crisis without burdening taxpayers with the costs of a crisis they did not create. Students and young people in the United States like myself know that climate change is the most urgent crisis of our time. The New Jersey Legislature must pass this bill, and Gov. Sherrill must sign it into law.
Under the legislation, fewer than 100 corporations worldwide would face assessments for their climate impacts, and have to pay into the fund in an amount proportional to the damage they have done. According to ROI-NJ, only companies with more than 1 billion tons of global greenhouse gas emissions in the last 30 years would be required to pay into the fund.
That means that large companies like Exxon, Shell, and BP would have to pay for the crisis they have knowingly created. Exxon has known about the climate crisis with “shocking skill and accuracy” since the late 1970s, but has done nothing to stop it. It’s past time for these companies to pay for the damage they have done to the climate and the world.
That damage has wreaked havoc in New Jersey. In recent years, more and more intense disasters have ravaged the state. From 1980 to 2009, the state experienced a total of 28 billion-dollar disasters. In the last five years alone, we have experienced 26. Tropical cyclones, winter storms, other severe storms, and wildfires account for the bulk of this damage, and have intensified as a result of the climate crisis. Young people have watched these climate disasters with shock and sadness: They are emblematic of an even more dangerous climate future to come.
Without the Climate Superfund Act, the financial burden of these damages will be on taxpayers, rather than the corporations responsible for this crisis. This is unacceptable. The New Jersey Legislature must pass the Climate Superfund Act to build a more affordable and more resilient New Jersey. I applaud Sen. Zwicker and Assemblyman Freiman for their co-sponsorship of this legislation, and I urge all New Jersey legislators to push for this essential bill during the present legislative session.
It’s time to make polluters pay.