How would Maine’s proposed climate superfund work?

As Maine grapples with how to pay to fix roads, piers and other infrastructure damaged by severe storms that are increasing as the climate changes, lawmakers are considering a climate superfund act that would fine major fossil fuel companies for past damage. Vermont and New York passed similar laws in 2024; Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island are each considering their own bills this year. Maine’s climate superfund bill, L.D. 1870, which advanced out of committee last month, would impose fines on companies that contributed more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions between 1995 and 2024 and put that money toward a range of climate resilience and mitigation projects across the state. The idea is modeled after the federal Superfund program that was established in 1980 to make polluters pay to clean up toxic waste sites.