Examining State Climate Superfund Legislation

• Pages: 10251-10262
• Date: 01 May 2025
• Published date: 01 May 2025

MAY/JUNE 2025 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 55 ELR 10251

DIALOGUE

EXAMINING STATE CLIMATE

SUPERFUND LEGISLATION

There has been an inf‌lux of “climate superfund” bills introduced and adopted in state legislatures across the

country. Modeled after the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

(CERCLA), these laws are designed to recover costs from large emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to pay

for climate adaptation infrastructure. Following CERCLA’s strict liability framework, major polluters in New

York and Vermont would be required to pay into state-managed funds in proportion to their shares of total

GHG emissions; California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon have proposed similar bills.

On March 19, 2025, the Environmental Law Institute hosted a panel of experts to discuss state climate super-

fund bills generally and the nuances of the Vermont and New York laws. Below, we present a transcript of that

discussion, which has been edited for st yle, clarity, and space considerations.

SUMMARYSUMMARY

Madison Calhoun is Senior Manager of Educational

Programs at the Environmental Law Inst itute.

Rachel Rot hschild (moderator) is an Assistant Professor

of Law at the University of Michigan Law School.

Jonathan Binder was formerly Deputy Commissioner for

Climate Change, Air Resources, and Energy at the New

York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Elena Mihaly is Vice President of the Conservation Law

Foundation in Vermont.

Justin Mankin is an Associate Professor at Dartmouth

and Director of the Climate Modeling and Impacts Group.

Ben Lippa rd is a Partner at Vinson & Elkins.

Ma r y Wo od is the Philip H. Knight Professor at the

University of Oregon School of Law.

Madison Calhoun: I’ll introduce today’s moderator,

Rachel Rothschild, who is a n assistant professor of law at

the University of Michigan Law School. Rachel received

her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where

she was a Furman academic scholar, and her Ph.D. in his-

tory from Yale University, where she was a National Sci-

ence Foundation graduate research fellow. She has an

article, “State Climate Superfunds,” forthcoming in the

Columbia Law Review,1 and is author of the book Poisonous

Skies: Acid Rain and the Globalization of Pollution.2

Rachel Rot hschild: I would like to start by talking a bit

about the background to this legislation, why these bills

gained traction in state legislatures, and what the bills

are hoping to accomplish. ey are meant to address the

need for additional funding for climate adaptation, given

the signicant costs t hat are going to be associated with

trying both to adapt our in frastructure and respond to

natural disa sters, as well as perhaps to ameliorate some of

the problems of increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-

sions through projects that actively remove carbon dioxide

(CO2) and other GHGs from the atmosphere.

e costs of natural disasters are quite signicant.

Flooding, hurricanes, wildres, and other events have put

enormous pressure on state budgets over the past several

years in particu lar. Regardless of which ad ministration is

in the White House, these costs a re expected to increase

signicantly and put a lot of pressure on states to respond.

But certainly, under the current Donald Trump Admin-

istration, I and many others expect that t hese burdens on

state budgets are only going to get worse. President Trump

has called for reducing responses t hrough the Federal

Emergency Management Agency. at increases the need

even more for states to take additional responsibility for

funding climate adaptation.

1. Rachel Rothschild, State Climate Superfunds, 126 C L. R. 4

(forthcoming 2026).

2. R E. R, P S: A R   G-

  P (Univ. Chicago Press 2019).

Editor’s Note: Professor Rothschild gave these remarks in

her personal capacity only and not as a representative

of her institution or anyone involved with state climate su-

perfund legislation. She has provided pro bono advice on

state climate superfund legislation to government off‌icials

and legislators in Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and

Vermont, as well as to New York PIRG, Vermont PIRG, Mas-

sachusetts 350, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the

Rockefeller Family Fund. While she was working as a legal

fellow at the Institute for Policy Integrity immediately prior

to her professorship, the Institute received funding from the

Rockefeller Family Fund to provide legal advice about state

climate superfund legislation. That grant was for $50,000.