Vermont’s Climate Pollution Law Faces Long Road to Implement

Vermont’s first-in-the-nation law to make fossil fuel companies foot the bill for climate change damage is almost sure to spur lawsuits—but probably not for a while, according to an attorney and lobbyist who helped steer the policy.

Gov. Phil Scott (R) allowed the state’s Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program to become law without his signature on Thursday, launching state officials into a rulemaking and implementation process expected to conclude in 2027.

The state’s Agency of Natural Resources is now tasked with looking at the roughly 73 companies globally that emitted more than 1 billion tons of carbon from 1995-2024 to ...