Activists call for accountability from polluters that contribute to climate change ahead of a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York City in 2024. Laws to “make polluters pay” are making headway in a growing number of U.S. states.
Photo by Alex Kent, courtesy AFP/Getty Images
For Taarika Sethee, 15, a high school junior in San Diego, climate anxiety first took hold while reading issues of National Geographic and Catalyst during the COVID-19 stay-at-home period.
Instead of allowing her fears to overwhelm her, she turned them into action. As an eighth grader, Sethee joined a local organizing campaign, Youth v. Oil, channeling her frustration toward a new target: the polluters fueling the climate crisis.
“We haven't caused the climate crisis, but it's going to be affecting us the most,” she told The Nation's Health.
The San Diego-based Youth v. Oil campaign, part of the global 350 movement to end dependence on fossil fuels, has organized youth walkouts, staged protests, met with state lawmakers and advocated for climate justice causes even in the face of opposition from lobbyists.
“This is not necessarily our preferred way to spend our free time...we should be living a normal childhood and doing what everyone else did,” Sethee said. “But at this point, there's too much pressure and there's a big fear that our futures are on the line.”
Youth v. Oil is one of hundreds of organizations supporting the “make polluters pay” movement, which seeks to hold major polluters financially responsible for the growing costs of climate change, including damage from more frequent and severe extreme weather events.
Payments from major oil and gas companies can help communities invest in climate resilience and prepare for the health and environmental impacts of a warming planet.
Sara Shor, director of organizing and partnerships at Fossil Free Media, which leads a national campaign, has spent more than 15 years organizing climate justice movements. Nothing has brought more momentum or excitement than the Make Polluters Pay campaign, she said.
“Budgets are stretched thin...and right now consumers and taxpayers are the ones footing the bill entirely,” Shor told The Nation's Health. “People are angry about that. They want the people who are actually responsible to be left holding the bill.”
Nearly three-quarters of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions come from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In January, the Maine Conservation Alliance and partners called on state lawmakers to pass a climate superfund bill.
Photo courtesy Maine Conservation Alliance
Yet the major companies behind fossil fuel production do not usually pay penalties or taxes for the harms their practices inflict. Instead, the companies often receive billions of dollars in tax breaks, favorable leasing terms, direct government support and other financial incentives.
Meanwhile, Americans shoulder the growing costs of extreme weather. In 2024, events linked to climate change — including wildfires, heat waves, hurricanes and flooding — caused nearly $190 billion in damages, according to Climate Central.
The financial toll extends beyond property damage. Heat-related illness, the deadliest weather-related health risk, accounts for an estimated 235,000 emergency department visits and more than 56,000 hospital admissions each summer, costing about $1 billion annually, according to a 2023 report from Virginia Commonwealth University and the Center for American Progress.
With the cost of living already straining household budgets, Americans are also paying the price of climate change through higher homeowners insurance premiums, rising cooling and utility bills, and increased healthcare costs. U.S. households spend an average of more than $900 a year on climate-related expenses, according to a November study in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. For homeowners in the 10% of counties most affected by climate change, annual costs exceed $1,300.
Advocates behind campaigns that want to hold polluters accountable for costs argue that the companies have known for decades about the health, environmental and economic harms associated with their pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and continued exploiting fossil fuel production.
The campaigns have not just shaped national conversations around who should pick up the bill for the climate crisis. States are increasingly moving to require major fossil fuel companies to help cover costs.
In 2024, New York and Vermont became the first states to enact climate superfund laws, using the legal system to require major fossil fuel companies to help pay for the costs of climate change.
New York's law requires the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2018 to pay a combined $3 billion annually for 25 years to fund climate infrastructure and resilience projects.
“These measures hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the immense costs of climate change,” Vanessa Fajans-Turner, MA, executive director of Environmental Advocates NY, said in a statement.
In Vermont, the law authorizes the state to determine each company's share of historical greenhouse gas emissions and seek reimbursement for climate-related costs. State officials are now calculating the costs that those emissions have imposed, a key step before polluters can be billed. The assessment is due early next year.
A pump jack sits in an oil field. Some states are working to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for costs of climate damage.
Photo by Funtay, courtesy iStockphoto
Major oil companies and the Trump administration have challenged both laws in court, arguing they are unconstitutional and preempted by the federal Clean Air Act because they attempt to regulate interstate and international greenhouse gas emissions.
But advocates argue that the laws do not regulate or limit emissions. Instead, they are designed to recover the costs of climate damage by holding fossil fuel companies financially responsible for the harm caused by their historical emissions, according to Elena Mihaly, JD, MS, vice president for Vermont at the Conservation Law Foundation.
Meanwhile, climate superfund bills are gaining traction in other states and municipalities.
In Maine, a series of extreme storms that struck the state in December 2023 and January 2024 caused an estimated $90 million in damage to public infrastructure. Covering those costs meant relying on the state's general fund — money that would otherwise support programs such as food and healthcare assistance, said Sarah Woodbury, MA, legislative director at the Maine Conservation Alliance.
“We should not have to foot the bill for something that, at the end of the day, is basically the responsibility of these large fossil fuel industries,” Woodbury told The Nation's Health.
During a week of action in January, the Maine Conservation Alliance and partners visited the statehouse to call on lawmakers to pass a climate superfund bill. Advocates used photographs and personal stories to share firsthand how climate change is impacting the state.
In April, Maine lawmakers fell short of passing a bill. Instead, they approved legislation directing the state Department of Environmental Protection to assess the financial costs that historical greenhouse gas emissions have imposed.
Although the bill does not require polluters to pay for the environmental damage associated with their emissions, Woodbury said it keeps the state moving forward while related lawsuits are still pending.
In other states, bills to make polluters pay are making it to the legislative floor. Climate superfund bills have been introduced in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia in recent years.
Unfortunately, legislation in Congress threatens to undermine work that is being done at the state and local level. This spring, opponents introduced the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026, which would give the oil and gas industry financial immunity for environmental damages. A handful of states have also passed immunity policies.
Even so, financial responsibility advocates say they feel the tide is turning. As calls to hold major polluters accountable grow louder, Sethee says the momentum fuels her fight for climate justice and her hope for what is next.
“Climate anxiety definitely just grows and grows and grows and almost overcomes you when you're isolated because it feels like you're the only one that cares,” she said. “When you start to zoom in and focus on one thing specifically... that's when it starts to feel a lot more feasible and the little wins start to matter a lot.”
For more information, visit www.350.org, www.makepolluterspay.net and www.clf.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
