Vermont communities have been hit hard by extreme weather fueled by climate change. It's only fair that the fossil fuel companies whose products cause this weather pay their fair share for cleanup. Photo credit: CLF staff
After weeks of work, Wes Hamilton finished a renovation to the restaurant he co-owns in downtown Montpelier, Vermont. The Three Penny Taproom is a favorite among locals looking for a Reuben sandwich, a “shorty” burger, or a hearty bowl of chili, paired with a special craft beer to wash it all down. By 2023, Hamilton’s restaurant had become so popular that he realized he had to expand.
“We financed the expansion privately, taking on considerable personal financial risk to do so,” says Hamilton.
In July 2023, Hamilton put the finishing touches on an overhaul that would allow him to serve more customers.
Then disaster struck. One week after renovation, rising waters from the Winooski River inundated the Three Penny Taproom. Heavy rains led to catastrophic flooding throughout downtown Montpelier. At the restaurant, equipment was destroyed and inventory lost due to standing water three feet deep. Walls and floors were severely damaged, too.
Despite the Herculean efforts of hundreds of volunteers gathered to help Montpelier businesses clear debris, Hamilton, along with the town’s other businesses and families, was left financially adrift, struggling to pay for a cleanup he could not afford.
“We received $125,000 from our flood and property insurance, which was a fraction of the approximately $375,000 it ultimately cost us to rebuild and replace all that was lost or destroyed,” says Hamilton. And that’s not to mention lost revenue from the summer and fall months that the restaurant was forced to remain closed.
Vermont’s Climate Superfund Act is Born
It’s precisely these kinds of stories that led CLF to push for the creation of Vermont’s ground-breaking Climate Superfund Act in 2024. The first such law in the nation, the Act is designed to make fossil fuel companies pay their fair share of cleanup costs after the increasingly frequent, severe storms we are experiencing because of the climate change their products cause.
Vermont’s law follows the principles of the federal Superfund Act passed in 1980. That law, established after a Niagara Falls community was built at the site of a toxic chemical dump, asserts that polluters must pay for the cleanup of hazardous waste even if they didn’t intend to pollute. Since then, “polluter pays” laws have required companies responsible for environmental contamination to help clean up their messes. Yes, it’s inconvenient and expensive for investors in prosperous corporations flush with cash, but it’s the right thing to do.
“Big Oil companies have known for years that their fossil fuel products were causing massive disruptions to the climate,” says Elena Mihaly, vice president of CLF Vermont. “Now, for the first time, they’ll be held financially accountable for it. It’s not fair that Vermont residents shoulder the burden of cleanup costs by themselves.”
Those cleanup costs in Vermont have reached the billions in recent years as torrential rains fueled by climate change have washed out town infrastructure, destroyed homes, and devastated businesses. As Vermont families struggle to pay the bills, CLF, along with our partners, worked closely with legislators and state officials to pass a workable and desperately needed solution.
It’s a solution supported by a huge majority of voters in New England and nationwide – nearly 80% of voters want oil and gas companies to pay for climate damages, according to a survey by the Washington think tank Data for Progress. The concept has gained so much traction that CLF advocates are now working with partners in most other New England states to push passage of their own superfund laws.
CLF Defends a Game-Changing Law
But despite this national support, just a few months after Trump took office, his administration moved quickly to protect the balance sheets of fossil fuel companies threatened by such a law. In the suit known as United States v. Vermont, the administration is suing Vermont to block the enforcement of the new climate superfund act. The administration’s suit is in addition to one filed by the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and a coalition of 24 Republican-led state attorneys general.
Determined to defend the law we fought so hard to pass, CLF asked a federal judge to allow the organization to join the case as a defendant-intervenor. Last June, the judge granted CLF and our partner, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, permission to do so.
“This law is a simple exercise of state sovereignty to respond to the climate costs crisis,” says Mihaly. “Vermont is using its legal right to raise revenue and protect the health, safety, and well-being of its residents.”
For CLF, defending the law is simply part of our resolve to hold polluters accountable, protect communities, and stand up to the bullying by Big Oil and the Trump administration.
A High-Stakes Game for Communities
The stakes are high for Vermont towns and families still swimming in red ink, even if floodwaters have receded – for now.
“Vermont – and New England – face astronomic costs in recovery from and preparedness for climate disasters,” says Mihaly. Climate superfunds, she says, are a practical solution that can help communities to prepare and adapt.
As for Hamilton and other Vermont residents like him, the law could mean the difference between losing his home and business or keeping them.
“It is clear to me that climate change has increased the frequency and severity of events like the flooding we experienced in the last two years in Vermont,” says Hamilton. “We could invest the money [the Climate Superfund Act] generates in projects that protect our community from future flooding…I believe that the fossil fuel industry should help to fund the state’s efforts to adapt in ways that eliminate or reduce future harm to Vermonters.”
