Last year, after devastating floods that swept across our state, the Vermont legislature took a bold and necessary step by passing Vermont’s Climate Superfund Act. This landmark law is designed to do what’s only fair: require the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, which profited for decades while knowingly fueling the climate crisis, to help pay for the damages and adaptation costs that Vermont and its residents are now facing.
The Climate Superfund Act has been challenged by Big Oil its allies in court. Oil CEOs even met with President Trump in the oval office, urging him to use the power of the federal government to try to shield their companies from accountability. Trump dutifully followed through, and at his direction the US Department of Justice has also weighed in in opposition to Vermont’s law, and a similar one enacted late last year in New York.
Now, 53 Vermont representatives (including nearly the entire House Republican Caucus) have introduced a bill siding with Big Oil and Trump to stick Vermonters with the full cost of the climate crisis on our state. H.518 would repeal this crucial legislation, and is a direct attack on Vermont’s ability to protect its communities and taxpayers from the escalating financial burden of climate change. We simply cannot afford to let H.518 pass.
We’ve all seen the wreckage from recent storms, the homes and businesses destroyed, the infrastructure crumbling under the strain of more extreme weather. The Climate Superfund Act makes clear that hardworking Vermonters should not have to shoulder that financial burden alone – that the multinational fossil fuel corporations that have knowingly fueled this crisis for decades should have to pay their fair share of those costs.
It’s egregious that these representatives decided to side with Big Oil over their constituents.
The Climate Superfund Act sends a powerful message: Vermont is serious about dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis, and about holding polluters accountable. The law sets up a rigorous process for assessing the costs of climate-related damages and investments, ensuring that any demands made to fossil fuel companies are based on sound data and their proportional contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.
Opposing H.518 is about protecting Vermont’s future. It’s about ensuring our communities have the resources to rebuild and become more resilient. It’s about shifting the financial burden of climate change from the shoulders of everyday Vermonters to those who are truly responsible.
VPIRG will be following this bill and any other attempts to undermine the Climate Superfund Act closely as we move into the second half of Vermont’s legislative biennium. If you want to stay in the loop, sign up here.
You can find a full list of the representatives who sponsored. H.518 here: https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2026/H.518