This bill summary was last updated March 17, 2025.
Damages from climate change are increasingly costly to both human health and the natural environment, and are now almost entirely borne by Oregon’s citizens. But since the warming climate is mainly a consequence of burning coal, oil and natural gas, it is appropriate for fossil energy companies to contribute to these damage costs.
Oregon’s Polluter Pays bill would require large fossil fuel firms to pay reparations for past climate change damages. It is based on the principle that those responsible for creating pollution have a moral obligation to make amends. The bill enacts this principle into law. Its approach is analogous to other, well-established federal and state programs that impose strict liability for cleaning up past pollution. Analogous Climate Superfund bills have been enacted and are being considered in other US states.
Under the bill, the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) will lead an interagency team to administer the bill’s provisions. This team will create a climate resilience implementation strategy that includes nature-based solutions to stabilize water-adjacent lands, practices to adapt infrastructure to the effects of climate change, and practices to build out early warning systems and support economic and environmental sustainability. Here are a few other key aspects of the bill:
- Liable fossil fuel firms must have emitted greenhouse gases worldwide in excess of a specified threshold during 1995-2024. The interagency team will use the best available science to identify these firms, and the relative amounts charged to each.
- Payments are required in proportion to a company’s share of carbon dioxide emissions over the historical period. Well-established research makes it possible to attribute emissions to specific companies based the amounts of coal, oil and gas burned.
- Climate change damages between 1995-2024 will be estimated by experts on the interagency team, using the best available science.
- This bill does not preempt the Multnomah County lawsuit, or displace any other liabilities that responsible parties may have under other laws.
- The bill establishes a Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program Account, separate from the Treasury’s General Fund. Within the funds dispersed, 30% must be allocated to wildfire prevention and 40% to environmental justice communities.