I started this post a few days ago, but we went to Vermont this past weekend and I didn’t have the chance to finish it up there. It’s about Vermont, by the way.
It seems that those aging hippies up there in Vermont just never learn. Look what they want to do:
Vermont is poised to pass a groundbreaking measure forcing major polluting companies to help pay for damages caused by the climate crisis, in a move being closely watched by other states including New York and California.
Modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, which forces companies to pay for toxic waste cleanup, the climate superfund bill would charge major fossil fuel companies doing business within the state billions of dollars for their past emissions.
The measure would make Vermont the first US state to hold fossil fuel companies liable for their planet-heating pollution.
“If you contributed to a mess, you should play a role in cleaning it up,” Elena Mihaly, vice-president of the Conservation Law Foundation’s Vermont chapter, which is campaigning for the bill, said in an interview.
This runs afoul of the law in so many respects that its chances in court are absolutely nil. First of all, it runs counter to the interests of the rich and powerful. The idea of making the conscious producers of climate change pay for the negative effects of their actions is absurd. Sure that’s what basic tort law is all about, but it’s totally different when you’re dealing with huge corporations. Second, it would serve a useful purpose and, particularly if other states follow Vermont’s lead, it would help solve a problem that Republicans refuse to admit exists. Can anyone imagine Alito, Roberts, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Barrett, or Gorsuch upholding such a law? They’re far more likely to find a way to declare the federal Superfund law an unconstitutional taking, considering that it too makes polluters pay to clean up their mess. I mean, really, you can’t get more unAmerican than that.
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