Connecticut families are feeling the costly effects of climate disasters. Extreme weather like floods, storms and droughts in Connecticut require clean up and rebuilding that costs millions each year. Those costs are passed on to everyday people. That’s not fair. Connecticut must start by holding big polluters accountable through a Climate Superfund that makes those who caused the damage pay their fair share.
At the core of this issue is a simple lesson we all learned in primary school — if you make a mess, you clean it up. For decades, the biggest polluters have created pollution that is making extreme weather worse. When clean up bills for extreme weather events come due, the polluters are nowhere to be found. Who is stuck with the bill? Families, taxpayers, and local communities.
Connecticut families deserve solutions that lower costs, protect our communities, and hold polluters accountable for the mess they created. Connecticut needs a Climate Superfund.
A Climate Superfund bill would require major fossil fuel companies to assist in paying for some climate related damages and adaptation measures. It would ensure that companies responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions contribute to mitigating the climate damage they helped create. Importantly, funds would be prioritized for projects that benefit communities hit hardest by fossil fuel pollution and climate change.
In Connecticut alone, extreme weather fueled by climate change caused $53 million in losses to Connecticut farms in 2023 and 2024. Extreme rainfall brought catastrophic flooding and is estimated to have caused $300 million dollars in damages in August of 2024. In September of 2024, during a historic fall drought, brush fires rampaged across the state. A fire in Berlin, which involved out-of-state crews and helicopter water drops, cost upwards of $5 million. According to the Center for Climate Integrity, $5.3 billion is the minimum amount needed for defense against rising sea levels in the state by 2040. All of this amounts to a grand total of at least $5.6 billion that is being put on Connecticut families.
The massive profits of oil and gas corporations have come at a direct cost to our communities and our planet. While disaster recovery efforts around the world struggle to keep up with rising community needs, the fossil fuel industry is raking in record profits, showering shareholders with massive payouts and conducting stock buybacks instead of investing in solutions. An analysis has found that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world’s largest fossil fuel companies have earned hundreds of billions of dollars as the conflict drove up global energy prices. These companies continue to expand fossil fuel extraction, spend heavily on lobbying, mislead the public about the realities of climate change, and build new infrastructure designed to lock us into decades of pollution. While fossil fuel corporations make record profits, ordinary taxpayers are paying for the damage that these companies have caused.
A Climate Superfund, like New York’s $75 billion Climate Change Superfund Act, aims to save taxpayers by shifting costs for climate adaptation from public funds to fossil fuel companies, potentially saving hundreds of billions in avoided future expenses. Projections show New Yorkers could save thousands per person over decades by avoiding costs like massive infrastructure upgrades, and preventing billions in immediate, unsubsidized adaptation spending.
Connecticut families are facing a cost of at least $5.6 billion to clean up climate damages and adapt to rising sea levels. Fossil fuel companies, who long knew the consequences of burning their products, are the primary drivers of this crisis. Why should everyday people in Connecticut have to pay to dig ourselves out of a problem they created?
Passing a Climate Superfund Bill would hold polluters accountable, protect communities, and lower costs for Connecticut families.
Julianna Larue, Organizer, Sierra Club Connecticut