Climate activists gathered outside the New Jersey State House this week, urging lawmakers to pass legislation that would force fossil fuel companies to help pay for the state's mounting climate recovery costs. The rally centered on the Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey Affordable Act, a bill that has cleared a committee vote but has not gone to a full vote in either chamber and is not currently on the voting calendar.
As reported by WHYY, the activists urged lawmakers to pass legislation requiring fossil fuel companies to help fund climate recovery efforts, then moved inside the State House hoping to speak directly with legislators. Among them was Russell Eidmann-Hicks, a retired Holmdel minister who helped his community rebuild after Hurricane Sandy. He said the effects of climate change are intensifying and that polluters should be held accountable.
What the Bill Would Actually Do
The Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey Affordable Act would require qualifying fossil fuel companies to pay for their greenhouse gas contributions, according to WHYY's reporting. Qualifying companies would include those contributing more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases globally since 1995, as well as those that operated or sold fossil fuels in New Jersey. Separately, New Jersey Monitor reports the Assembly's environment committee advanced the renamed measure in a party-line vote, and that Assemblyman Ravi Bhalla said the criteria would capture only Shell, ExxonMobil and British Petroleum, known as BP.
The bill aims to raise $50 billion, with payments spread out in equal installments over 20 years, the outlet notes. If a company misses a payment or ceases business, the unpaid balance would come due immediately. Money raised would fund infrastructure and grid updates, flood protection projects, and preventative health care programs, and would flow into a special trust fund for climate adaptation grants.
A related but separate effort is moving through the Senate: the Senate Environment and Energy Committee has advanced legislation sponsored by Senators John McKeon, Bob Smith, and Raj Mukherji to create a Climate Adaptation, Resiliency, and Affordability Program, according to a New Jersey Senate Democrats release. That proposal would impose strict liability on parties responsible for pollution and disperse funds through a trust overseeing grants involving eight executive departments.
A Summer of Disasters Fuels the Push
Organizers point to a rough stretch of weather as evidence the state cannot wait. New Jersey experienced heavy rain, flash flooding and a heat wave over the summer, and the heat wave alone killed 29 people, per the seed reporting relayed by WHYY. Chris Sotiro, executive director of the Climate Revolution Action Network, said New Jersey lacks a dedicated climate-resilience funding source in its state budget, and argued the legislation would provide long-term financial benefits through greater state resilience.
WHYY reports that New Jersey experienced 14 climate disasters from 2011 to 2014, which cost taxpayers $7.9 billion. A 2025 state report warned that climate change threatens infrastructure, housing markets and the tourism industry.
The insurance market shows similar strain. Cape May County's homeowners-insurance non-renewal rate tripled from 0.47% in 2018 to 1.45% in 2023, per the same Rebuild by Design analysis. Activists also point to what they describe as federal retrenchment, saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been dismantled and the Environmental Protection Agency has been substantially stripped down, leaving states to absorb more of the cost themselves.
Industry Pushes Back Hard
Critics of the legislation argue it will raise energy costs and cost New Jerseyans jobs. Bob Considine, chief communications officer for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said the bill will worsen the state's already hostile business climate and warned that energy companies would simply raise costs to consumers if it passes. Business groups more broadly have warned that oil firms would pass those costs on to consumers, according to New Jersey Monitor.
Activists and organizers counter that fossil fuel companies knew for decades what environmental impact their products could have, and argue that accountability is overdue. Charlie Kratovil, an organizer with Food and Water Watch, said activists intend to speak directly with legislators and pressure them to act, and bill supporters say they hope lawmakers will ultimately put the measure up for a vote.
New Jersey Isn't the First to Try This
New Jersey would not be breaking entirely new ground if the bill becomes law. New York's 2024 Climate Change Superfund Act sought to recover $75 billion from coal, oil and gas producers based on their share of emissions from 2000 through 2024, with companies required to contribute $3 billion annually starting in 2028, according to a Jones Day legal analysis. New York was the second state, after Vermont, to establish an industry-financed climate superfund.
That effort has already hit a wall. A federal judge ruled in late August that New York cannot enforce its law, finding it preempted by the Clean Air Act, per WHBL. Vermont's own Climate Superfund Act now faces a separate federal challenge in which the New York ruling could serve as precedent, Jones Day notes. Lawmakers in at least 12 other states have proposed similar climate superfund bills this session, though States Newsroom reports none had advanced as of that reporting. For comparison, BP and related firms agreed to pay $20.8 billion after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a figure New Jersey Monitor cites as a benchmark for the scale of money now being discussed in Trenton.
For now, the Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey Affordable Act remains stuck in legislative limbo, cleared by committee but without a scheduled floor vote in either chamber. Activists who rallied outside and then moved into the State House say they plan to keep pressing lawmakers directly until that changes.
