A climate superfund can help clean up communities like Montpelier, Vermont, one of many towns flooded in torrential rains that hit the state in 2023. Photo: Vince Franke
April 9, 2025 (Boston, MA) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directs the Attorney General to “stop the enforcement of State laws” on climate change. The executive order calls out Vermont’s Climate Superfund law, which requires the biggest fossil fuel polluters to pay into a fund to cover the costs of preparing for and recovering from climate disasters. Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) released the following statement in response.
“Conservation Law Foundation is grateful to President Trump for this executive order, a screed devoid of legal argument and filled with racial animus preemptively documenting that any filing by the Department of Justice taking Big Oil’s side in this matter will be nothing more than a political errand,” said CLF President Brad Campbell, a former DOJ trial attorney. “We look to Attorney General Bondi to defend the constitutional powers of states, the integrity of her Department, and the right of Vermont to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens in the face of deadly and costly extreme weather caused by Big Oil.”
Vermont’s Climate Superfund law is a first-of-its-kind law that will force the biggest fossil fuel contributors to climate change to pay their fair share for the damages. New York also passed a similar law and legislative leaders and advocates in Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are following in Vermont’s footsteps with the introduction of Climate Superfund bills of their own.
CLF experts are available for further comment.
###