New Jersey legislation · 2026-2027 Regular Session
New Jersey A3735: Climate Superfund Act-impose liability on certain fossil fuel companies
Status: Introduced, June 23, 2026
"Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey More Affordable Act"; imposes cost recovery payments on certain fossil fuel companies for funds needed for climate change adaptation; establishes program in DEP to collect and oversee distribution of funds.**
What the bill says
An Act concerning revenues to support climate change adaptation projects and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey More Affordable Act. 2. a. The Legislature finds and declares that: (1) climate change, driven chiefly by the combustion of fossil fuels, is an immediate and grave threat to the States communities, environment, and economy. Its irreversible consequences already confronting the State include rising sea levels, increasing average temperatures, more frequent and severe extreme-weather eve.
From the amended text, June 23, 2026:
An Act concerning revenues to support climate change adaptation projects and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey More Affordable Act. 2. a. The Legislature finds and declares that: (1) climate change, driven chiefly by the combustion of fossil fuels, is an immediate and grave threat to the States communities, environment, and economy. Its irreversible consequences already confronting the State include rising sea levels, increasing average temperatures, more frequent and severe extreme-weather events, flooding, heat waves, toxic algal blooms, and other climate-related hazards; (2) preserving the States quality of life, particularly for todays youth, who will bear the brunt of climate impacts over their lifetimes, constitutes one of the States greatest challenges for the next three decades and will require a shared sense of purpose, substantial new or upgraded infrastructure, and dependable revenue sources; (3) the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund already embodies the principle that entities responsible for environmental harm must finance its remediation, yet no analogous mechanism exists to address atmospheric pollution caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases; (4) decades of peer-reviewed research now make it possible to quantify, with high confidence, the proportion of historic greenhouse-gas emissions attributable to the extraction of fossil fuels by individual companies over …