The Vermont Legislature is advancing legislation requiring big fossil fuel companies pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather.
The state Senate is expected to give final approval this week to the proposal, which would create a program that fossil fuel companies would pay into for climate change adaption projects in Vermont. It will then be considered in the House.
“In order to remedy the problems created by washed out roads, downed electrical wires, damaged crops and repeated flooding, the largest fossil fuel entities that have contributed to climate change should also contribute to fixing the problem that they caused,” Sen. Nader Hashim, a Democrat from Windham County, said to Senate colleagues on Friday.
Maryland, Massachusetts and New York are considering similar measures, but Vermont’s bill is moving quicker through the Legislature.
How is this enforceable? What marginal increase in a hurricane’s destructivness is attributable to climate change versus how destructive it’d be otherwise. And how much did that cost in damage? It’s impossible to figure out
Seriously. We already have the legal concept of “acts of God” in every form of insurance. Great idea, but you’d have to uproot centuries of legal standards, and I just don’t see the opposition allowing that. It would open the door to so many more lawsuits.
Great idea, but I’ll wait to hear if it passes and what actual teeth it has.
