Vermont lawmakers passed a bill this week that is designed to make big fossil fuel companies pay for damage from weather disasters fueled by climate change. The legislation is modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s superfund program, which requires the companies responsible for environmental contamination to either clean up sites themselves or reimburse the government for the costs of work to do so.
“New England has had a 60% increase in the heaviest precipitation days,” he said, explaining that “for every 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature, you get a 4% increase in the amount of water vapor that the atmosphere can hold.” In Vermont specifically, this past winter was the warmest ever recorded. It came after the state experienced record-breaking rainfall in July, which caused catastrophic flooding. The storm cost the Northeast close to $2.