Virginia’s attempt to join a national wave of climate superfund legislation was immediately rejected after a bipartisan vote against the newly introduced bill in a key committee this week.
Like similar climate superfund legislation introduced elsewhere around the country, SB420, the “Extreme Weather Taxpayer Protection Program and Fund” bill, aimed to penalize U.S. energy companies for historic greenhouse gas emissions and for cost recovery payments to the Commonwealth.
But two Democrats, including the committee chairman, joined all six Republicans on the Senate Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources Committee to vote down the bill, strongly criticizing it as a retroactive liability on U.S. companies for their lawful production of energy in previous decades that would erode confidence among businesses and the political process.
Sen. William M. Stanley said:
“In fact, what it is, it’s completely anti-business and it chases people for things in the past, not try to regulate behavior in the future. … And so what it seems to me here is that we’re retroactively changing legal consequences like ex post facto, which is fundamentally not what this country, nor this commonwealth, nor the people that put both together wanted for us as a society.”
Sen. Richard H. Stuart further added that it’s misguided to solely blame energy companies for historic emissions when everyone in Virginia – including the Democrats that supported the bill – enjoy the benefits of a modern society powered by oil and natural gas:
“And to me, it seems to be very unconscionable for the General Assembly to say we enjoyed your products our entire lives, and your products made our lives so much better, and it allowed us to drive from place to place, and heat our homes and educate our children and all these things.”
Notably, the bill’s failure happened immediately after a National Week of Action from the Make Polluters Pay activist group that specifically called for the passage of climate superfund legislation.
Virginia isn’t the only state where climate superfund legislation has run into roadblocks. Earlier this year, a similar proposal stalled in the New Jersey state legislature after concerns over retroactive liability and affordability, with the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee stating, “Each and every one of us… [is] relying on [fossil fuels] one way or another in your everyday life.”
It was argument again echoed by Rosemary Becchi, the founder and president of Jersey 1st, an advocacy issues awareness group, who wrote in NorthJersey.com, that like Virginia, the state’s own bill sought to punish a certain group of companies for the actions of all consumers.
“New Jersey residents drive cars, heat homes and fly on airplanes. State and local governments operate fleets of vehicles, run public buildings and manage transportation networks that depend on fossil fuels. Major corporations across industries generate significant emissions every day.
“Yet none of these actors are meaningfully held accountable under the bill. Instead, responsibility is concentrated on a small group of companies for the alleged wrongdoing of providing a legal product that residents, businesses and the state itself demanded.”
And despite supporters of climate superfund legislation promoting their proposal as a solution to affordability, Becchi points out that such a bill would only increase costs on consumers.
“A ‘climate superfund’ bill also risks real economic consequences for New Jersey. Increased costs imposed on energy producers do not disappear; they are often passed along to consumers in the form of higher energy prices, higher transportation costs, and increased costs for goods and services.
“At a time when New Jersey families are already grappling with some of the highest property taxes and cost-of-living pressures in the country, roughly 15% above the national average, that burden matters.”
Despite climate superfund bills successfully passing in New York and Vermont, the implementation of both laws has been stalled after the U.S. Department of Justice sued both states, arguing the laws are preempted by the Clean Air Act, and violated due process and the interstate and foreign commerce clauses.
Meanwhile in California, another state with persistent affordability challenges, a climate superfund bill failed last year after eroding support from Democratic members and strong pushback from businesses that the bill would hike costs for consumers.
Bottom Line: The failure of climate superfund legislation in Virginia is the just the latest setback for such efforts around the country, as Democrats and Republicans came together to oppose bills aimed at penalizing companies for historical actions and for producing the energy that everyone in society replies upon.
