Plain English Breakdown
The official status indicates the bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, but no specific effective date is listed in the provided metadata; however, the text states it takes effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025
This law creates a program requiring large fossil fuel companies to pay for climate damages caused by emissions between 1990 and 2024.
What This Bill Does
- Creates the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Program run by the California Environmental Protection Agency.
- Requires the agency to list companies that own a majority of businesses extracting or refining fossil fuels if they did business in California between 1990 and 2024 and are responsible for over one billion metric tons of emissions globally during that time.
- Orders a study within one year to calculate total climate damages to the state from January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2045.
- Requires listed companies to pay their share of the calculated damage costs into a new fund in the State Treasury.
- Allows money in the fund to be used for projects that help reduce or fix climate change damages after the Legislature approves spending.
Who It Names or Affects
- Companies with majority ownership interests in fossil fuel extraction or refining businesses that did business in California between 1990 and 2024.
- The California Environmental Protection Agency, which must manage the program and publish lists of responsible parties.
Terms To Know
- Responsible party
- An entity that owns a majority interest in a fossil fuel business engaged in extraction or refining, did business in California between 1990 and 2024, and is responsible for more than one billion metric tons of emissions globally during that time.
- Covered period
- The time between the calendar years 1990 and 2024, inclusive.
- Total damage amount
- All past and future climate harms to the state calculated from January 1, 1990, through December 31, 2045.
Limits and Unknowns
- The bill does not specify how much money will be collected until the agency completes its cost study.
- Spending of funds depends on future approval by the Legislature to appropriate the money.
- The exact list of companies subject to payment is unknown until the agency publishes it within 90 days.