PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 5, 2026
A so-called “climate superfund,” LD 1870, proposed in 2025 by Rep. Grayson Lookner and Sen. Stacy Brenner would require American energy companies to pay for a state superfund for mitigation and adaptation projects for extreme weather due to decades of greenhouse gas emissions statewide. The legal murkiness of such proposals has prompted challenges in other states. Climate superfunds are neither the legal nor practical approach that Maine policymakers must abandon in favor of viable and effective solutions to lower carbon emissions. Legal challenges to superfunds would hamper our state’s effort to lower carbon emissions and put us back at square one. Also, the regulatory back and forth our state would face makes implementing a climate superfund difficult. ~ Drew Ketterer, Maine attorney general, 1995 to 2001; his legal practice formerly or currently represents major petroleum companies