The state of New Jersey is looking to follow in Vermont’s footsteps and introduce a fee on oil and gas companies that would go to a climate superfund as a means to make polluters pay. Senate Bill No. 3545, which the New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee is debating on Thursday, would seek to impose liability on certain fossil fuel companies for certain damages caused by climate change.
” Environmentalists have now hailed the New Jersey bill as an important tool to make “polluters pay to repair, upgrade and harden our critical infrastructure from climate-driven damage,” Matt Smith, New Jersey Director of the nonprofit Food & Water Watch, told Associated Press. But the bill has also drawn criticism from industry.