Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
This year, the Rhode Island General Assembly considered a type of bill that’s been popping up across the country: it aims to make fossil fuel emitters pay for the impacts of climate change.
Rhode Island didn’t end up passing the legislation this year, but Nat Hardy from our Possibly Team spoke with one of the bill’s sponsors about what comes next in Rhode Island.
Nat Hardy: Hi, Megan! Thanks for having me.
Megan Hall: So tell us about this bill.
Nat Hardy: Yeah, it’s called a climate super fund bill. It’s a pretty new idea to address the impacts of climate change.
Jennifer Boylan: The concept is to make the polluters pay for the damages that they caused.
Nat Hardy: That’s Representative Jennifer Boylan, the lead sponsor in the House, for the Rhode Island Climate Superfund Act of 2026. She’s introduced this bill two years in a row with her colleague, Senator Linda Ujifusa,
Megan Hall: So what was in the bill?
Nat Hardy: The bill would have made major fossil fuel emitters pay for the cost of responding to climate change in Rhode Island. It would cover projects at the state and local level.
Megan Hall: Like what?
Nat Hardy: All sorts of things– repairs after storms caused by climate change, responses to extreme heat, plans to respond to rising waters…There’s a long list.
Megan: Who would pay these costs?
Nat Hardy: The bill specifically targets the biggest polluters: companies responsible for more than one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. So we’re talking companies like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell. And the companies would be charged proportionally, based on their emissions over the past few decades.
Megan Hall: Interesting! I didn’t realize states could do something like that.
Nat Hardy: Yeah, so this legislation is a new interpretation of an old concept. It’s based on the 1980 federal “Superfund” law, designed to help the government clean up sites contaminated with hazardous waste.
Jennifer Boylan: And it also forces the parties responsible for that contamination to either perform the cleanup themselves or reimburse the government for any work done by EPA to clean up the site.
Nat Hardy: So climate superfund bills are trying to do the same thing. If you caused the damage, you pay to fix it. And the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel companies are causing the more powerful storms, heatwaves, and other impacts we’re seeing from climate change.
Megan Hall: Has any state successfully passed one of these bills?
Nat Hardy: Yeah, Vermont was the first state to pass a law like this in 2024 and New York passed one pretty soon after. There are also 11 other states considering these bills.
Megan Hall: Got it. But the Rhode Island bill didn’t pass this year. What happened?
Nat Hardy: So reaction to the bill was split. We saw testimony from residents and environmental groups in favor of the law.
But we also saw testimony against the law- both from local groups, and from some national groups who represent the interests of oil and gas companies: the American Petroleum Institute and the confusingly named Consumer Energy Alliance.
Representative Boylan isn’t surprised.
Jennifer Boylan: I mean, of course these companies aren’t gonna roll over and say, “Okay, you got me. Sure. Where, where do I write the check?” Right? They’re gonna fight it, and that is to be expected.
Nat Hardy: But there was another concern about the bill– like, will it hold up in court?
The two states that have passed climate superfund laws, New York and Vermont, have already been sued, by the Justice Department, and 22 other states
Megan Hall: How did those lawsuits affect the Rhode Island bill?
Nat Hardy: So because of those challenges, the director of Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management, and others, have asked Rhode Island’s legislators to wait for the legal process to play out before they pass a similar law.
Megan Hall: So where do things go from here?
Nat Hardy: The lawsuits are making their way through the courts, so it’ll be a while before they’re resolved. But Representative Boylan says the bill will be back next session:
Jennifer Boylan: I’m not going anywhere with this bill. As long as I’m up at the General Assembly as my district sends me back, I will be filing this bill, as long as I think it has some sort of viable path forward, and I do.
Nat Hardy: So we’ll have to keep an eye on those lawsuits and Rhode Island’s next legislative session to see how things turn out.
Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Nat
That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the ways your choices affect our planet, at ask possibly dot org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on social media at “ask possibly”
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Ocean State Media and WBRU.
