The New Jersey Legislature is considering charging oil and gas facilities to fund efforts to fight climate change.
It’s no coincidence that the quintessential New Jersey show, “The Sopranos,” opens with the main characters passing gasoline and oil storage tanks along the New Jersey Turnpike.
From the suburbs of New York to the shoreline of the Delaware River across from Philadelphia, New Jersey is home to numerous oil and natural gas facilities.
Under a bill being considered in the state Legislature, these facilities would be subject to a fee to help the state combat the effects of climate change.
The bill, scheduled to be debated Thursday in a state Senate committee, would allow federal governments to clean up toxic waste by imposing additional taxes on oil and chemical companies to fund ongoing cleanup efforts. The aim is to create a climate superfund similar to the money raised by governments.
This is a tactic used or considered by many other states, including Vermont, which recently enacted such laws. New York, Maryland, Massachusetts and California are also considering similar measures.
“Governor Murphy and state legislators are committed to protecting the health of New Jersey taxpayers and communities by making polluters pay to repair, upgrade, and harden critical infrastructure from the damage caused by climate change.” That’s even more important,” said New Jersey State Director Matt Smith. An organization of the non-profit organization Food & Water Watch.
New Jersey’s business lobby already opposes the bill. Ray Cantor, an official with the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said the bill accomplishes nothing other than raising gasoline prices for motorists and gas and oil prices for home heating customers.
“There’s a lot wrong with this bill, beyond the fact that it seeks to impose retroactive liability on companies that were providing lawful, essential products to the people of this state,” he said. “The cost assessment is unconstitutionally vague and likely to be preempted by federal law. It does nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or impact climate change.”
His criticism echoed those voiced by the oil and gas industry when Vermont’s bill was signed into law in May.
New Jersey’s bill “would hold certain fossil fuel companies liable for certain damages caused to the state and its residents by the harmful effects of climate change.”
The combustion of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal is a major cause of climate change.
The proposal would impose an as-yet-unspecified fee on fossil fuel producers that would go to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which would use the money to subsidize climate change adaptation and severe weather will pay for programs that increase the state’s resiliency.
The state has spent two years assessing the damages to New Jersey caused by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion since 1995, and has determined that “each responsible party will be held strictly accountable” for those damages. ” is planned to be established.
