Should polluters pay? California’s climate ‘superfund’ plan may have stalled

In the battle over how to pay for damage wrought by climate change, California lawmakers had an idea: Create a “superfund” that makes big polluters pay.

The Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 would make the world’s largest sources of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels financially responsible for the damage caused by wildfires, droughts and other events exacerbated by the warming climate.

The idea adopts the “Superfund” model — created by Congress in 1980 to clean up the nation’s worst toxic waste sites — and applies it to greenhouse gases, aiming to hold companies financially accountable for emissions that drive climate change.

New York and Vermont have already enacted similar measures despite massive opposition from the oil and gas industry.

But the proposed California le