Since the time records regarding the changes in the average temperature at the Earth’s surface first started being kept beginning in year 1850 or thereabouts, the global mean surface temperature has risen 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit or 1.5 degrees Celsius. Science backs that up with fact.
What is more difficult to prove is whether or not human influence coming in the form of clear-cutting of Amazon rainforest trees or the burning of fossil fuels by human beings, for example, is actually what is driving — or helping drive — changes in climate. If it turns out that there is a definite correlation, then who if anyone should be held to account for climate-change-caused damage? What a tough question to try to answer. There are just so many factors to consider.
Well, as it turns out, just this morning, I learned that introduced legislation in California is aimed at making the biggest polluters within state borders foot the bill for physical damage caused by a changing climate in the Golden State. The bill was introduced on Feb. 21, 2025.
“A bill to assess fees on the largest fossil fuel polluters to pay for the climate damage they’ve caused in California was introduced in the state legislature today [Feb. 21, 2025],” the Center for Biological Diversity [The Center] announced in a press release. “The Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act (SB 684/AB 1243), by Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) and Asm. Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo), would create a program under California’s Environmental Protection Agency to assess fees on the largest historical producers of climate-heating pollution. It would force these fossil fuel polluters to pay for their increasingly devastating and costly damage to the state.
“The bill comes after historic wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles, causing more than $250 billion in damages and killing 29 people. Climate change has lengthened the fire season, causing the overlap of dry, fire-prone conditions with intense Santa Ana winds.
“‘The L.A. fires show with heartbreaking clarity how much we need this bill to make the biggest climate polluters pay for the astronomical damage they’ve caused,’ said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. ‘The public shouldn’t be shelling out billions of dollars every year to recover from severe and deadly climate disasters. By passing this commonsense bill, state lawmakers can put the financial burden of climate damage on giant polluting companies, where it belongs.’”
So how would this work?
The Center in the same release in question spells this out.
“Under the bill, the state would calculate climate damages through 2045 and assess compensatory fees from fossil fuel producers or refiners responsible for more than 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas pollution between 1990 and 2024. The fees would be proportional to polluters’ emissions during this period.
“The fees will then go into a new Polluters Pay Climate Fund to remedy the damage polluters caused the state — intensified wildfires, cycles of flooding and drought, heatwaves, superstorms and sea-level rise — all while profiting off their deadly products.
“The fund invests in California’s future, supporting projects such as community resilience and hardening against wildfire risk, solar panels and energy storage installation in low-income communities, and assistance for firefighters and other essential workers in climate disaster response.
“Fossil fuels account for nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions and more than 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Peer-reviewed research of polluters’ own self-reported data demonstrates that roughly two-thirds of man-made carbon dioxide and methane emissions were caused by just 90 of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers.”
Skipping ahead some, The Center in the press release went on to state that the states of New York and Vermont last year approved similar legislation.
So my questions now are: Does said legislation and do similar bills passed in other states have any teeth? Will the largest polluters agree to comply with what is laid out in these legislative remedies or will they turn to the courts to appeal such measures? That remains to be seen.
Above and corresponding, connected home-page-featured images: CAL FIRE via Wikimedia Commons
— Alan Kandel
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