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AB 1243

Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025.

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Dawn Addis and 12 co-sponsors

AB 1243 creates a CA Polluters Pay Climate Superfund to recover climate damages from major fossil-fuel firms (1990-2024) and fund mitigation/adaptation projects.

In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
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Bill Summary · AB 1243

AB 1243 — Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025

Status: Introduced Feb 21, 2025. In committee (set first hearing; hearing canceled at author's request as of 2025-04-29). Declared an urgency statute (effective immediately if enacted). Referred to Assembly Natural Resources and Judiciary committees; fiscal committee referral noted.

Purpose

AB 1243 creates a state-administered program to recover a portion of historical climate-related damages from major fossil‑fuel producers and deposit those recoveries into a new state fund to pay for mitigation, adaptation, and response projects in California. The stated legislative aim is to reduce the fiscal burden on current and future California taxpayers for harms caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Key provisions

  • Establishes the "Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Program" administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA).
  • Defines the covered period for emissions as calendar years 1990 through 2024 (inclusive).
  • Requires CalEPA, within 90 days of the bill’s effective date, to publish a list of “responsible parties.” A responsible party is an entity with majority ownership in a business extracting or refining fossil fuels that did business in California or had sufficient contact with the state and that the agency determines is responsible for more than 1,000,000,000 metric tons (in aggregate globally) of covered fossil‑fuel emissions during the covered period.
  • Requires CalEPA, within one year of the effective date, to complete a “climate cost study” quantifying the “total damage amount” (all past and future climate harms to the state from Jan 1, 1990, through Dec 31, 2045). The study must be updated at least every 5 years through Jan 1, 2045.
  • Within 60 days after the study’s completion, CalEPA must determine and assess a “cost recovery demand” for each responsible party representing its proportionate share of the total damage amount.
  • Collected payments are deposited into a newly created Polluters Pay Climate Superfund in the State Treasury. Interest earned remains in the fund.
  • Moneys in the fund are expended only upon legislative appropriation for qualifying expenditures (projects/programs to mitigate, adapt, or respond to climate damages; priority to disadvantaged communities is stated).
  • CalEPA must estimate initial implementation costs and equitably allocate those costs among responsible parties. The Director of Finance must, within 45 days of the act’s effective date, perform an initial assessment of reasonable initial implementation costs.

Who would be affected

  • Primary targets: large fossil‑fuel extraction/refining companies meeting the 1,000,000,000 metric‑ton global emissions threshold and having sufficient nexus to California.
  • Secondary: state budgeting/appropriations (new fund), recipients of grants/projects (state/local agencies, disadvantaged communities), and potentially taxpayers (by reducing future state expenditures allocated to climate impacts).

Procedural & legal notes

  • Urgency statute status would make the act effective immediately upon enactment; legislative digest indicates a 2/3 vote requirement.
  • The bill states it is not a determination of fault and does not preclude other legal actions; however, its design—allocating liability and assessing cost recovery demands—could prompt administrative and legal challenges (not specified in the text).
  • Fiscal committee review is required (bill flagged as having fiscal implications).

Legislative history (selected)

  • Introduced 2025-02-21; read first time 2025-02-24.
  • Referred to Natural Resources and Judiciary committees (2025-03-28).
  • Multiple amendments and re-referrals in April 2025; coauthors revised 2025-04-22.
  • Set for first hearing in Assembly Natural Resources on 04/18/25; later set and then hearing canceled at author’s request (04/29/25).

This summary highlights substantive elements and timelines included in AB 1243 as of the most recent bill version.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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