In response to devastating wildfires in California in recent years, Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D–San Fernando Valley) and Asm. Dawn Addis (D–San Luis Obispo) have introduced a new bill that would create a program under California’s Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to assess fees on the largest historical producers of climate-heating pollution. It would force these fossil fuel polluters to pay for their increasingly devastating and costly damage to the state—rather than leaving Californians to bear the financial burden.
This bill, known as the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025, SB 684 and AB 1243, establishes the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Program, to be administered by CalEPA. The program requires fossil fuel companies to pay their fair share of the damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions released between 1990 and 2024, resulting from the extraction, production, refining, sale, or combustion of fossil fuels or petroleum products. The goal is to shift part of the financial burden of climate change response and adaptation away from taxpayers and onto the corporations most responsible.
Within 90 days of the law’s adoption, CalEPA must publish a list of responsible parties—defined as entities with a majority ownership interest in businesses that extracted or refined fossil fuels, conducted business in California, and are responsible for over 1 billion metric tons of global fossil fuel emissions during the covered period.
Using a climate cost study, CalEPA will calculate the total damages from climate impacts in California through 2045 and determine each responsible party’s proportionate share of the costs. These funds will be deposited into a newly created Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Fund, which will finance climate resilience, clean energy projects, disaster preparedness, green jobs, and infrastructure improvements—particularly benefiting disadvantaged communities.
Companies may pay in full or opt for a 20-year installment plan, with penalties for nonpayment. The law also allows for continued legal action against polluters and does not preempt existing environmental laws or regulations.
In short, this act is a bold step to make fossil fuel giants financially accountable for the climate crisis they helped create—and to fund California’s response and recovery in the decades to come.
Note: Citizens groups are planning to rally in support of the bill in Sacramento on April 2 for the bill’s first hearing at 9 a.m. in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. Organizers have arranged for coffee, bagels, and t-shirts to be distributed, followed by the hearing and a group photo. For more details, location info, and updates, they encourage RSVPs.