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Vermont has passed a new law that will allow the state to recover financial losses caused by climate change in recent decades. Under the Green Mountain State’s legislation — the first of its kind in the U.S. — “Big Oil” will be footing the bill to help recover from natural disasters believed to be fueled by climate change as well as building new infrastructure to be better prepared for future climate challenges.
Republican Governor Phil Scott sent a letter to the state’s general assembly allowing the measure to become law. In it, Gov. Scott outlined his doubts and fears of the legal challenges they’ll undoubtedly face from the world’s biggest oil companies but also acknowledged the desire to mitigate the effects climate change has had on his state.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration outlined 23 weather and climate disasters that brought at least one-billion worth of damage with them between January 1 and August 30, 2023. The list included fires, droughts, hurricanes, winter storms or cold waves, and floods that tore through vulnerable infrastructure and attributed the intensity (and resulting cost) of those disasters to climate change. Vermont made the list with a summer storm that brought two months’ worth of rain and caused massive flooding, costing the state over a billion dollars in damages when it was all said and done. Meanwhile, the United Nations says the world’s oil and gas companies are the largest contributors to the emissions of greenhouse gases contributing to these weather events getting more intense and more frequent. Connecting these dots, Vermont lawmakers will now take those oil companies head on.
The next step is an assessment of “cost recover demand” by the Agency of Natural Resources. The agency will bring a report back to Vermont lawmakers by January 2025 detailing the entities extracting fossil fuels or refining crude oil that emitted more than one-billion metric tons of greenhouse gases between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2024. Assuming the state is actually able to recover costs from those companies, the money will be put into a superfund aimed at developing climate change-resilient infrastructure. Supporters of the bill argued this will save the state’s taxpayers for footing this same bill instead.
Anticipating the resistance companies will have to this and the ensuing legal battles to avoid accepting those costs, Gov. Scott expressed concern over the state adopting the new law on its own rather than coordinating efforts with New York and California, states that are both working to create similar laws.
“Taking on ‘Big Oil’ should not be taken lightly,” he wrote. “And with just $600,000 appropriated by the Legislature to complete an analysis that will need to withstand intense legal scrutiny from a well-funded defense, we are not positioning ourselves for success.”
He added, “Having said that, I understand the desire to seek funding to mitigate the effects of climate change that has hurt our state in so many ways. I also note Attorney General Clark and Treasurer Pieciak have endorsed this policy and committed to the work it will require. I’m also comforted by the fact that the Agency of Natural Resources is required to report back to the Legislature in January, 2025 on the feasibility of this effort, so we can reassess our go-it-alone approach. So, for these reasons, this bill will become law without my signature. I hope those who endorsed this policy will follow through.”
