Vermont Moves to Hold Fossil-Fuel Companies Liable for Climate-Change Damage

On July 10, 2023, Vermont’s state capital, Montpelier, was hit with more than five inches of rain. The city sits at the confluence of the main stream of the Winooski and its north branch; the former is considered to be at flood stage when the water level reaches fifteen feet. That day, the Winooski rose above twenty-one feet. The city’s downtown business district was inundated. Cars were drowned, shops were ruined, and people canoed or paddleboarded past shuttered businesses.

As the world warms, more and more of New England’s rain is falling in extreme precipitation “events,” so the downpour, though record-breaking, was still in keeping with recent trends. “It’s definitely going to happen again,” Lauren Oates, the director of policy and governmental affairs for the Nature Conservancy in Vermont, predicted a few weeks after what became known as the Great Vermont Flood of 2023. And, indeed, five months later, it did; in mid-December, the local rivers reached flood stage again, this time owing to a combination of heavy rain and snowmelt. “Climate change is real,” Vermont’s governor, Phil Scott, a Republican, said after the second round of flooding. “I don’t think anyone should be surprised about this.”

Recently, with memories of the floodings still fresh, Vermont lawmakers voted to assess a fee on fossil-fuel producers to pay for “climate-adaptive” infrastructure projects in the state. The bill operates on the polluter-pays principle, the basis of the federal Superfund law—it’s been dubbed the Climate Superfund Act. Last week, the act was sent to Governor Scott, who, despite his December statement, is expected by many to veto it. It will then go back to the legislature, which is expected to override his veto in a special session, already planned for June. (The bill passed with super-majorities in both houses.) “We’re confident,” Paul Burns, the executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, a key backer of the bill, said, referring to an override. “Of course,” he added, “you always want to be careful on this kind of thing.” (VPIRG lost years’ worth of records in July’s flood.)

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