Woonsocket Radio News Room

 

Ujifusa, Boylan introduce R.I. Climate Superfund Act

 

STATE HOUSE – Sen. Linda L. Ujifusa and Rep. Jennifer Boylan are proposing a Climate Superfund Act for Rhode Island to take the burden off Rhode Island taxpayers and make polluters pay, similar to the way the 1980 federal Superfund Act made responsible parties pay for hazardous waste site cleanups. 

The House hearing on the bill is scheduled Thursday, Feb. 27, and the public is invited to submit testimony in person or in writing.

The Rhode Island Climate Superfund Act of 2025 (2025-S 0326, 2025- H 5424) would require large fossil fuel companies to pay for cleanup and damages they have caused in Rhode Island based on their carbon emissions over the last three decades. 

“With each record rainfall, coastal storm, forest fire and heat wave, our taxpayers are forced to pay skyrocketing insurance costs and pick up the tab to protect our health and environment, our shorelines and infrastructure,” said Representative Boylan (D-Dist. 66, Barrington, East Providence). “This bill simply ensures the corporations that caused this crisis help pay for necessary responses, instead of just raking in record profits and leaving working families to foot the entire bill.”

Said Senator Ujifusa (D-Dist. 11, Portsmouth, Bristol), “Giant fossil fuel corporations have been well aware of the polluting effects of their products for decades, and chose profits over the planet. With 400 miles of vulnerable coastline and an economy dependent on tourism and marine trades, Rhode Island must act to protect our health, safety and our economy.”

The Rhode Island Climate Superfund Act would require fossil fuel companies responsible for more than 1 billion tons of emissions between 1990 and 2024 to pay for cleanup and damages caused by their emissions. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) would determine the cost of the climate change response work performed by the state and municipalities since 2009, and fossil fuel companies will pay their fair share based on the proportion of emissions they contributed. The funds collected would be used by the state to pay for climate change response work.

This bill is modeled on climate Superfund laws passed last year in Vermont and New York. According to Dr. Jeffrey Migneault, co-chair of Climate Action RI, multiple other state legislators are also introducing Climate Superfund bills, including those in California, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maine.  In addition, numerous organizations across the country support similar federal legislation. 

While there is no doubt that responsible parties will fight the bill as they have in

analyzing the New York bill has stated that costs will not be shifted to consumers because these bills look at past costs imposed by responsible parties, and global markets — not individual companies — set oil and gas prices.

Darrèll Brown, vice president of Conservation Law Foundation Rhode Island, notes, “Given environmental protections are being gutted at the federal level, it is imperative Rhode Island join the multiple other states that are proposing and passing state climate Superfund laws and hold Big Oil and the fossil fuel industry accountable for the damage their products have caused.”