Advocates are calling on Connecticut lawmakers to pass Climate Superfund legislation that would require the largest fossil fuel corporations to help pay for climate-related damages and resilience efforts. Photo: Ecophotography
January 29, 2026 (New Haven, CT) – Connecticut residents gathered near the State Capitol on January 28 to demand accountability for polluting corporations that pass on costs to local communities. Connecticut families are paying millions for climate disasters while a handful of fossil fuel executives and corporate elites rake in record profits. This is climate injustice and it’s being driven by an oligarchy that pollutes our communities and sticks taxpayers with the bill.
“If you make a mess, you should clean it up. We learned this lesson as children, and now it’s time Big Oil and Gas do, too,” says Kendall Keelen, Conservation Law Foundation Staff Attorney. “It’s not fair that Connecticut families and small businesses foot the entire bill for the damages caused by extreme weather. Especially, when those companies knew what science shows—that fossil fuels worsen it. We can’t let the companies responsible continue to make millions off of the dirty fuels that destroy our homes, threaten our livelihoods, and harm our loved ones while we drain our wallets. It’s common sense that the companies that make so much money from fossil fuels share in the financial burden of the cleanup.”
At the rally, community members, climate advocates, and local leaders shared firsthand stories of flooding, extreme heat, rising insurance costs, and damage to homes and businesses caused by climate change. Speakers warned that fossil fuel corporations have knowingly driven the climate crisis for decades while evading accountability, and are now pushing for immunity from responsibility with support from the Trump administration and its allies. Rallygoers made clear that Connecticut families should not be forced to subsidize Big Oil’s profits or bail out polluters who want a free pass for the damage they’ve caused.
Moving forward, advocates are calling on Connecticut lawmakers to pass Climate Superfund legislation that would require the largest fossil fuel corporations to help pay for climate-related damages and resilience efforts. The coalition urged legislators and the Governor to stand with Connecticut residents, not corporate polluters, by advancing policies that protect communities, lower taxpayer burdens, and ensure that those most responsible for the climate crisis are held financially accountable.
“The Connecticut legislature has a second chance to stop sticking taxpayers with Big Oil’s bills and put the cost of extreme weather where it belongs on the corporations that contributed to the crisis,” said Julianna Larue, Organizer with Sierra Club Connecticut. “A Climate Superfund would take financial burden off of families and municipalities, hold polluters accountable for the damage they knowingly caused, and deliver real relief to communities hit hardest by climate disasters.”
“Young people are inheriting a climate crisis that we did not create, and we are the ones forced to live with the consequences. A Climate Superfund is about making the biggest polluters pay for the damage they’ve caused instead of passing the costs onto our generation. This is a necessary step to create a more livable and affordable future for us young people where we can pay for and repair the damages undone onto our communities” – Sydney Collins, Sunrise New Haven
“Environmental racism has been detrimental to the health of my family. Maintaining a decent quality of life seems nearly impossible as our water and air continues to be polluted by corporations causing us to struggle with health barriers, education, and early mortality. Along with medical bills, high energy costs, and rising rents it is necessary to hold these billion dollar corporations accountable for the damage they have done to our communities for decades and decades. We suffer while they profit and enough is enough.” – Tenaya Taylor, Non-Profit Accountability Group
“We must make fossil fuel companies pay for the climate damage they have created, rather than leaving those costs to our neighbors and families. New York and Vermont have both passed similar laws to address climate pollution. We in Connecticut desperately need our own. Connecticut can build more climate-resilient towns and cities. The Climate Superfund provides an alternative to make polluters pay, not residents.” – Dr. Meagan Moore, Organizer with Mothers Out Front Connecticut
“The Climate Superfund makes it clear to fossil fuel companies – you break it, you buy it.” said Helen Humphreys of Connecticut Citizen Action Group. “These companies have known for decades what their product does to our planet, but refuse to take any accountability for these devastating effects. This fund would stop socializing the cost of their climate damage and take the burden off of taxpayers.”
“It’s reprehensible that older policymakers remain willfully ignorant of what young people are experiencing,” said Christine Palm, a former state representative who decided not to run for office for a fourth term so she could launch The Active Voice, a civics and journalism internship for young environmentalists. “The 10th amendment gives states enormous power, and our state elected leaders must invoke that power in order to protect the air our youngest generations will breathe long after we are gone.” – Christine Palm, The Active Voice
“Climate change continues to threaten farmers in Connecticut, creating more extreme weather patterns that lead to crop loss and top soil erosion. Farmers continue to innovate with climate smart strategies, however the increasingly hot summers, significant rain and flooding events, as well other natural disasters are all overwhelming barriers to sustaining a healthy environment and local food system.” – Kaitlyn Kimball, Owner; Sunset Farm, Director of Ag; CitySeed
“Climate change disproportionately hurts people, the most vulnerable people in our society, which we, as people of faith, are asked to care for. Children, the elderly, and medically-fragile people struggle in extreme heat and extreme cold, while people who are poor don’t have the resources to address the damage caused by storms and floods. Extreme weather is costing CT millions each year, meanwhile, the fossil fuel companies are making trillions. It is time that they paid to address the harms caused by climate change.” – Terri Eickel, Interreligious Eco-Justice Network
“A Climate Superfund is a policy that makes sense for Connecticut and puts the responsibility for the costs on those causing it. Funding to support state and local governments with the effects of climate change will protect public services and make sure that public employees work in a safe environment.” – Zak Leavy, AFSCME Council 4
Farmers and farmworkers are on the front lines of climate change. Farms in CT lost over $80 million from climate disasters in 2023 and 2024, and, despite efforts to partially reimburse those losses, they still haven’t been paid. Farms suffer the effects of erratic weather, but there’s also a lot they can also due to adapt and make their operations more resilient, and a lot they can due to mitigate climate change with nature-based solutions. Farmers want to make these changes, but they cost money, and Federal and state programs run out of money for climate-smart agriculture every year. The Climate Superfund would provide another source of money to help CT farms survive and help to mitigate climate change.” – Kimberly Stoner, PhD. Director of Advocacy, CT NOFA
“Connecticut residents should not bear the financial burden for the damages directly caused by fossil fuel corporations. These companies knowingly pollute the environment and earn significant profits while the costs of a deteriorating ecosystem fall on our communities. We must take action by following the lead of New York and Vermont to enact Climate Superfund legislation, ensuring that those responsible for environmental harm are held accountable.” – Madison Spremulli, CT Zero Waste Coalition
“It’s time that those companies who are responsible for and have profited from climate pollution pay for its consequences. The status quo is that Connecticut taxpayers alone bear the costs of responding to increasingly frequent and severe disasters. That’s not fair and it must change. We need to join other states in holding fossil fuel companies accountable and make polluters pay.” – State Representative Steven Winter
“Connecticut communities are already paying for climate damage through flooded roads, strained budgets, and higher insurance costs. Internal documents show that many oil companies understood these risks decades ago, yet continued to mislead the public while expanding production. Now, some of those same companies are lobbying for immunity so they never have to answer for harms they long knew their products would cause. The Make Polluters Pay campaign draws a clear line: no corporation is above the law, and this cycle of damage and denial cannot continue.” – Mike Urgo, Former First Selectman, North Stonington CT
“For too long polluting industries have profited off the climate crisis that they have created. Under a federal administration rampant with corporate greed we are seeing more and more people standing up and speaking out every single day. We are standing up in CT to push for progress on climate and we need our state’s elected leaders to make it happen. Now is the time for real action!” – Connor Yakaitis, Deputy Director, CT League of Conservation Voters
“I think we must fight for the human right for clean air, clean water, and clean food. We must understand our history as a nation and learn from it. Connecticut, as a state, must be at the forefront for clean energy solutions such as thermal energy networks (TENs), heat pumps, and solar. We do not have time to waste. This is urgent! This is now!” – Alycia D. Jenkins, Organizer, Sierra Club CT, Hartford Resident
Experts are available for further comment.
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