I spent two days in mid-December sitting with dozens of other activists in the War Room (that’s its actual name) outside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, pressing her to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act into law.It had been sitting on her desk since both chambers passed the bill last June. On December 27, she signed it. Could we get a similar bill in Connecticut?
Melinda Tuhus
Our action was organized by two New York chapters of Third Act, which is a group of Americans over age 60 that works on climate and democracy, and Fridays for Future NYC, an international climate group for youth started by Greta Thunberg. The sit-in, sing-in, teach-in and die-in was followed by the arrests of 19 elders who declined to leave the building after it closed. They were charged with misdemeanors rather than lower-level violations, and must return to court early in January.>
The action put “an exclamation point” on a two-year effort to pass the bill, led by other state environmental organizations, said lead organizer Michael Richardson of Upstate Third Act.;
The legislation would require the largest fossil fuel companies to pay $3 billion a year for 25 years in compensation for the pollution they’ve emitted since 2000, in proportion to their products’ contribution to global heating. Economists across the political spectrum agree that this will not raise New Yorkers’ energy prices, because the price of oil is set by global markets. The money will help pay to repair damage from past climate-fueled storms and harden the state’s infrastructure to prepare for future catastrophes. The law also provides funding to address public health issues, such as asthma, which is exacerbated by fossil fuels’ toxic emissions.
The law is commonly known as Make Polluters Pay, and is the second one of its kind passed, after Vermont’s. However, New York’s massive economy and huge carbon footprint (which comes to Connecticut in the form of toxic air pollution) makes its law a game-changer and a beacon for the several other states currently considering similar legislation.
Connecticut is not yet among them, but it could be. The CT Sierra Club lists this as one of its 2025 policy priorities: “establish a funding stream, paid for by climate polluters, to pay for climate mitigation, resilience, and adaptation efforts with priority funding for Environmental Justice communities.” And the CT Coalition for Climate Action, a broad-based group that includes Sierra Club CT and many others, lists this point: “Hold climate polluters accountable for climate impacts.”
The Climate Change Superfund Act does not do anything to reduce greenhouse gases. It addresses past harms that the big oil companies have unleashed on New Yorkers and that the $75 billion will only partially offset. “This is about playing fair,” says Richardson, adding, “We could really call this the Municipal Taxpayer Relief Act.”
Conservative groups and oil companies pl