Environmentalists rallied outside the State House in Trenton Monday in support of a bill that would put some of the cost of pollution impacts back onto the companies they say have contributed to climate change.

The bill is called the Climate Superfund Act, and it would create the Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program. Matt Smith, New Jersey State Director for Food & Water Watch, said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News that the program would shift the cost of climate disasters from New Jersey taxpayers onto the corporations responsible for the climate crisis itself.

“The fossil fuel companies, the largest emitters of carbon pollution, companies like Exxon, BP, Shell, and Chevron are raking in record breaking profits, while the average New Jersey resident is forced to pay for these increasing climate costs which they simply cannot afford,” said Smith.

“We’re talking about only the largest and wealthiest fossil fuel companies in the world who do business in the state of New Jersey,” he said. “These companies who have emitted more than a billion tons of carbon pollution since 1995, would be assessed a proportional fee based on their percentage of those emissions, and those fees would go to a fund in the Department of Environmental Protection.

He said the money would go to infrastructure damaged by storms “to make sure that every New Jersey has clean water and can withstand the increased flooding that is happening in our communities.”

The Trump administration recently sued New York and Vermont for similar “superfund” laws. In addition, the companies who would be charged under the bill have said they operate their businesses according to the laws of the state and the fee would amount to a retroactive punishment for abiding within the bounds of the law.

Smith cited similar measures like the state’s Spill Act, as well as well as the original Superfund Act, that puts a financial costs on the corporations responsible.

“You’ve benefited and profited handsomely from the production and sale of these fossil fuels,” Smith said. “The pollution that you’ve caused as a result of that has harmed economically our state, has a cost in lives lost but also all of the infrastructure and other damages to our state.

“So it is only fair that you pay your share of the damages in New Jersey to clean up the mess that’s been made with climate change and to help New Jersey prepare for the extreme weather events and for the increased damages that are ahead,” he said.

The bill passed through the Senate and Assembly environmental committees but now needs to pass through the budget committees in both houses.

This report is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.