Meanwhile, the U.S. has just officially exited<\/a> the Paris Climate Agreement<\/a>, the latest in the federal government\u2019s continued backsliding on climate progress, and ongoing cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency put increasing strain<\/a> on states and cities. Advocates and some Democratic lawmakers are pushing states to fill the gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time for us to step up,\u201d said Gina Ramirez, director of Midwest environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a member of the coalition fighting for the Illinois bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a blue state, so we need to \u2026 implement ways to improve infrastructure and health and combat climate change.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This month, a climate superfund bill<\/a> was introduced in Rhode Island. On Monday, a councilmember in Washington, D.C., announced<\/a> a bill to study the financial impacts of climate change on the city and potentially require compensation from fossil-fuel companies. On Wednesday, a superfund bill in Maine was voted out of committee and will proceed<\/a> to a full vote in the state Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt only makes sense as our bills get higher and we pay the price for climate change, that polluters, the oil and gas industry, pay their fair share as well,\u201d Ramirez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Climate superfund bills are based on the premise that the companies most heavily contributing to the climate crisis should be on the hook to pay for its growing costs. The strategy pulls from the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act<\/a>\u2014known as Superfund\u2014which forces companies responsible for toxic contamination to pay for cleanup.<\/p>\n The idea is broadly popular among the public, according to polling<\/a> by Data for Progress and Fossil Free Media. They found that 71 percent of a national sample of likely voters were in favor of oil and gas companies paying a share of climate-related damages.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\tTrump and Republicans Join Big Oil\u2019s All-Out Push to Shut Down Climate Liability Efforts\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\tBy Dana Drugmand<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n But the bills have faced pushback from the Trump administration<\/a>. The New York and Vermont laws are both facing legal challenges from the fossil fuel industry and the U.S. Department of Justice. The agency, which called the measures<\/a> \u201cburdensome and ideologically motivated,\u201d has also sought to block Michigan and Hawaii from suing fossil fuel companies to pay for climate costs like adaptive infrastructure or public health interventions.\u00a0<\/p>\n The American Petroleum Institute included<\/a> fighting superfund legislation in its list of 2026 priorities, claiming the laws would \u201cbypass Congress and threaten affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n Cassidy DiPaola, communications director for Fossil Free Media and the Make Polluters Pay campaign, said that advocates are not deterred.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe recognize that this is a David versus Goliath fight, but we\u2019re not going to back down,\u201d DiPaola said. \u201cIt\u2019s what the majority of the population wants, and it\u2019s something that\u2019s simple and fair and makes a lot of sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Rising Costs of Climate Change<\/strong><\/p>\n Last year, the nonprofit Climate Central launched an online database<\/a> to track the most costly weather- and climate-related disasters across the country. The effort was led by the same lead scientist who tracked those costs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2014until the Trump administration axed the project in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2025, the U.S. experienced 23 such disasters with costs totaling at least $1 billion, for a total of $115 billion, Climate Central concluded. From 1980 through 2025, the U.S. has experienced 426 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, for a total of more than $3.1 trillion in damages.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, home insurance rates are rising<\/a> and insurance companies are increasingly backing out of areas with high risks from hurricanes or wildfires. Researchers have also documented<\/a> how climate change causes premature deaths and increasing health care costs as it fuels disease and other health problems.<\/p>\n Illinois is struggling with worsening flooding, heat waves and air pollution\u2014including from Canadian wildfires. All bring heavy costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n State Sen. Graciela Guzm\u00e1n, a Chicago Democrat who will introduce the superfund legislation in Illinois\u2019 Senate, said the bill is a practical step to bring funding to local schools, families and governments already struggling with these consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis bill is about setting a fairer standard for who pays when climate damage hits our towns and neighborhoods,\u201d Guzm\u00e1n wrote in an email.<\/p>\n This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n Donate Now<\/a> <\/p>\n Ramirez\u2019s basement, in her home on the Southeast Side of Chicago, was flooded on and off with sewage water for a week last summer when her sewer line broke during a rainstorm that caused severe flash flooding<\/a> throughout the city. Her home insurance wouldn\u2019t cover the thousands of dollars it took to repair it, she said. She sees it as an example of what the effort to \u201cmake polluters pay\u201d could address.<\/p>\n \u201cThis superfund climate bill would create revenue to fix the infrastructure and be able to combat all this bad stuff that\u2019s happening,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the past two years, Americans experienced a slew of devastating disasters, from Hurricanes Helene<\/a> and Milton<\/a> to the Los Angeles wildfires<\/a> and Texas floods<\/a>. Hundreds of thousands are reportedly<\/a> still without power after a punishing winter storm made worse by global warming<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of that contributes to growing momentum to make polluters pay, said DiPaola, of Fossil Free Media.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were looking at their insurance bills, they were looking at their utility bills, they were seeing the costs of climate damage and also everyday climate costs just really rising,\u201d DiPaola said. \u201cThey wanted some accountability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n Thank you,<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2164018073-330x220.jpg\"\/)
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