Recently, with memories of the floodings still fresh, Vermont lawmakers voted to assess a fee on fossil-fuel producers to pay for “climate-adaptive” infrastructure projects in the state. The bill operates on the polluter-pays principle, the basis of the federal Superfund law—it’s been dubbed the Climate Superfund Act. Last week, the act was sent to Governor Scott, who, despite his December statement, is expected by many to veto it. It will then go back to the legislature, which is expected to override his veto in a special session, already planned for June. (The bill passed with super-majorities in both houses.) “We’re confident,” Paul Burns, the executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, a key backer of the bill, said, referring to an override. “Of course,” he added, “you always want to be careful on this kind of thing.” (VPIRG lost years’ worth of records in July’s flood.)

The Climate Superfund Act doesn’t specify how much money should be collected; instead, it directs the state treasurer to determine how much it has cost Vermont to deal with the impacts of climate change. (A 2022 study from researchers at the University of Vermont predicted that, in the next hundred years, the cost of property damage from flooding alone could top five billion dollars.) The Agency of Natural Resources is then to assess fees on fossil-fuel companies based on their greenhouse-gas emissions between 1995 and 2024.