Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California Applauds Gov. Hochul for Signing Landmark Polluters Pay Bill; Urges California to Join Movement to Hold Corporate Polluters Accountable
California residents have already paid hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare and disaster cleanup costs caused by climate change
Sacramento, CA – Today, the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California (CSHC) applauded Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision to sign the groundbreaking Climate Change Superfund Act into law. This landmark, common sense legislation requires polluters to pay $3 billion annually to address the environmental damage caused by their emissions between 2000 and 2024. The funds — projected to total $75 billion over 25 years — will be used to repair infrastructure damaged by climate change and its resulting extreme weather events.
“New York and Governor Hochul are leading the way for states like California, Maryland, and Massachusetts to join the movement to hold corporate polluters accountable and spare taxpayers,” said Kassie Siegel, Steering Committee Member of the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California; and Climate Law Institute Director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Today’s New York bill signing is a major victory for climate justice, ensuring that the corporations responsible for the climate crisis bear financial responsibility for the damages they have caused. At the end of the day, polluters should pay, instead of leaving everyone else to deal with their dirty and unhealthy practices.”
The Climate Superfund Bill reflects growing momentum nationwide to hold Big Oil accountable for decades of pollution and its devastating effects on a state level, as President-elect Donald Trump vows to unravel corporate accountability for the oil industry’s polluting ways. As California also considers bold climate action, New York’s leadership provides momentum for polluter-pays legislation in other states. This law passed despite the $3.5 Million in special-interest lobbying Big Oil spent in less than two years to avoid cleaning up the mess they've left New York taxpayers.
To date, California residents have paid hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare and disaster cleanup costs caused by climate change. Polluters Pay legislation would determine which companies emitted the greatest shares of pollution and charge those companies their share of the costs of those damages. This would raise tens of billions of dollars for the state, while creating a new system of accountability for polluters in California.
Organized as the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California, the group led by community leaders and environmental justice organizations has grown to a large and formidable statewide coalition organized as CAvsBigOil.com and includes doctors, nurses, faith leaders, artists, and labor organizations united to protect California from Big Oil’s toxic pollution.
For more information, please visit our website at: CAvsBigOil.com
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Robin Swanson, robin@swansoncomm.net