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A 4696

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2025 Regular Session Introduced by Pamela Hunter

Imposes strict liability on large fossil-fuel companies for past emissions to fund a New Jersey Climate Superfund that pays for adaptation and resilience projects.

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Bill Summary · A 4696

Summary — A4696 (Climate Superfund Act)

Status: Introduced Sept. 12, 2024; reported out of Assembly Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste Committee with amendments (Mar. 10, 2025); referred to Assembly Commerce, Economic Development and Agriculture Committee and to Insurance. Companion bill: S3545 (1R).

Main purpose

The bill, titled the "Climate Superfund Act," would hold certain large fossil-fuel companies financially responsible for damages that covered greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have caused to New Jersey since 1995, and would create a State program to collect those compensatory payments and direct them as grants to climate change adaptation and resilience projects.

Key provisions

  • Definitions and scope

    • "Covered period": Jan 1, 1995 through the last day of the calendar year in which the act takes effect.
    • "Covered greenhouse gas emissions": total GHGs (in metric tons CO2e) attributable to the use of fossil fuels extracted or refined by an entity during the covered period.
    • A "responsible party" is an entity (or successor) that extracted fossil fuels or refined crude oil during the covered period and is determined by the DEP to be responsible for more than 1 billion metric tons of covered GHG emissions. Entities not required to pay New Jersey sales tax are excluded.

  • Damage assessment

    • The State Treasurer, in consultation with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), must submit to legislative environment committees an assessment of damages to the State and its residents resulting from covered GHG emissions no later than two years after enactment.
    • The assessment must quantify categories of impacts (public health, infrastructure, agriculture, flood preparedness, etc.), costs already incurred, and costs to abate effects.

  • Liability and cost recovery

    • Each responsible party is strictly liable to the State for damages as determined by the Treasurer.
    • Entities in a federal “controlled group” are treated as a single entity for identification, and such entities are jointly and severally liable for any cost recovery demand.
    • The DEP will calculate each responsible party’s proportional share of damages (based on their share of total covered emissions) and collect compensatory payments (termed “cost recovery demands”).

  • Fund and grant program

    • Payments go into the Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program Fund.
    • DEP must establish and administer a grant program to distribute funds for “climate change adaptation projects” (examples include flood protection, home buyouts, stormwater and infrastructure upgrades, healthcare responses to climate impacts, grid resilience, energy-efficiency retrofits, and ecosystem/agriculture protections).
    • Fund moneys may also be used for program administration.
    • DEP must issue annual reports on the program beginning five years after enactment and adopt implementing regulations no later than two years after the Treasurer’s damage assessment is produced.

Who is affected

  • Primary targets: large fossil-fuel extractors and refiners determined to exceed the 1 billion metric ton threshold — likely major multinational oil, gas, and coal companies or their successors.
  • Beneficiaries: New Jersey State agencies, local governments, communities (including overburdened communities), and projects addressing adaptation and resilience financed by the Fund.
  • Indirect effects: potential fiscal liabilities for responsible companies; potential increases in state-directed adaptation funding.

Timeline / procedural points

  • Treasurer’s damage assessment: within 2 years after enactment.
  • DEP regulations to implement program: within 2 years after the Treasurer’s assessment.
  • DEP annual reporting on program: begin 5 years after enactment and continue annually.
  • Committee action: reported with amendments (technical change noted); identical to S3545 (1R).

Notable limitations / exclusions

  • Responsible-party threshold: >1 billion metric tons CO2e during the covered period.
  • Entities that are not required to pay New Jersey sales tax are excluded from being designated a responsible party.

This summary focuses on the bill’s substantive framework: establishing strict liability for certain fossil-fuel companies based on historical emissions, a State-led damage assessment, mechanisms to apportion and collect payments, and a dedicated fund and grant program for climate adaptation and resilience projects.

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

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