New Jersey bill would charge fossil fuel companies for climate damages

Environmental advocates rallied at the State House to push the climate damages bill.

Environmental advocates and some Democratic lawmakers gathered at the State House Annex on Monday, March 16, to call on legislative leaders to pass a bill that would require fossil fuel companies to pay for climate-related damages.

The Polluters Pay to Make NJ More Affordable Act would generate an estimated $2.5 billion annually for infrastructure and resiliency projects by holding the world’s largest fossil fuel companies financially responsible for climate damages that state residents and taxpayers currently bear.

Supporters of the legislation say New Jersey residents pay more than $11,000 per person statewide in climate-related costs through higher property taxes, rising insurance premiums, and increased utility bills.

“The climate crisis is here and now, and the climate crisis is intertwined with an affordability crisis in our state,” said Matt Smith, New Jersey state director of Food & Water Watch, who led the rally. “The Polluters Pay Act shifts that cost burden onto the corporations who are most responsible.”

Assembly sponsor Alixon Collazos-Gill, D-Essex, framed the bill as a matter of basic fairness to taxpayers, saying residents are the ones who ultimately foot the bill for every storm, flood, and damaged road — not the federal government, not the state, but individual taxpayers.

“When we talk about municipalities working on these projects, once again, it is the taxpayers who pay for all of this,” she said. “So it’s always going to be us. This bill makes sure that polluters, who have caused a lot of this damage, pay a little bit.”
Collazos-Gill acknowledged that legal challenges from the industry are likely but said that should not delay action.

“Yes, lawsuits may happen, but guess what? This should not be a reason why we should wait,” she said. “We need to make sure that it happens before this budget so we can start planning for the future for New Jersey.”

She also noted the bill has been shaped through extensive negotiations with stakeholders, including labor groups, to ensure it is both legally sound and broadly supported.

The bill is currently sponsored by 43 Assembly members and 19 senators, and Collazos-Gill said that level of support reflects the urgency lawmakers feel heading into budget season.

Senate sponsor Sen. John McKeon, D-Essex, drew a direct line between federal energy policy under the Trump administration and the need for the legislation.

“We’ve got an administration that has been so favorable to the extractors of fossil fuels — anything from billions and billions of dollars of tax breaks, anything from changes in regulations, saving them billions and billions of dollars and accentuating the pollution of our environment,” McKeon said. “At the end of the day, it’s going to be a cost that’s going to happen. And who’s going to pay for it? It’s either we, the people, or those making millions and billions of profits.”

McKeon said he hoped the bill would be a priority for Gov. Mikie Sherrill, noting the concept was part of her campaign platform. He also said negotiations with organized labor had progressed significantly, with the bill projected to create 18,000 jobs, and that a provision directing a percentage of revenue to the state Department of Labor had helped bring key unions on board.

“We’ve come a long way with labor,” McKeon said.

Advocates also pushed back Monday against what they called a disinformation campaign by the fossil fuel industry. Smith said paid surrogates have been placing op-eds, press releases and digital ads claiming the bill would raise costs for working families — a claim he said is contradicted by a dozen economists, including Nobel laureates, who have gone on record in New Jersey and Vermont.

“This is really nothing more than a scam that big polluters are running to try to evade accountability for the damages that they cause to our state and for the rising affordability crisis in our state,” Smith said.

Assemblywoman Shama Haider, a new co-prime sponsor, compared the effort to past legal battles against the tobacco industry and said the case for the bill was straightforward.

“For me, this bill was a no-brainer. It’s so obvious that we have to do this,” Haider said. “Somebody said to me, well, what if somebody messed up this environment 20 years ago? Are you going to go after them? I said, hell yes, I will.”

Ben Dziobek, executive director of Climate Revolution Action Network, told the crowd that grassroots pressure had been central to advancing the legislation and urged continued engagement.

“We have to keep showing up here at the legislature because our prime sponsors, they’re already working,” Dziobek said. “We need to show the support across the state and in our local communities to show that we can win an affordable future paid for by the biggest polluters in our state.”

Dziobek also took aim at oil industry pricing, asking the crowd whether recent increases at the gas pump were caused by renewable energy.

“Has anyone here seen the price of gas recently? That was the big oil polluters making sure we all have to pay more,” he said. “People power will beat their misinformation.”

Molly Cleary, a policy advocate for Clean Water Action, questioned why residents should bear the financial burden of climate disasters they did not cause.

“Why should we pay for a climate disaster we did not cause?” she said. “I didn’t cause it. I don’t think you did. But I do know who did — the big polluters and the extractors who will pay with this bill.”

Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, noted that New Jersey championed the creation of the Superfund program to clean up toxic sites more than 40 years ago.

“It’s time that we have a Superfund program for our climate disasters, especially for our most vulnerable communities. We are not going to see more federal funding to mitigate climate impacts,” O’Malley said. “New Jersey has to hold the largest polluters accountable to protect our communities from extreme weather events. In this year of record-breaking flooding, extreme heat, and more intense thunderstorms, and amidst an escalating affordability crisis made worse by climate damages, the time is now for the Legislature to pass this bill before the budget is finalized.”

Following the rally, advocates fanned out through the State House to lobby legislators.