environmentalists today rallied outside the state house in Trenton in support of a bill that would put some of the cost of pollution impacts back onto the companies that they say have contributed to climate change matt Smith is the New Jersey state director for food and water watch that's in support of the bill and that bill is called the climate super fund act he joins us now from the state house as part of our ongoing series under the dome matt thanks so much for taking a few minutes to talk with us today you are advocating today in support of the climate super fund act and that would create the climate super fund cost recovery program explain what that program is yeah so right now the cost of climate change from extreme weather events to wildfires and all the damages that are caused are fall on the New Jersey taxpayer and we believe that this is fundamentally unfair the fossil fuel companies the largest emitters of carbon pollution uh companies like Exxon BP Shell and Chevron are raking in record-breaking profits while the average New Jersey resident is forc to pay for these increasing climate costs which they simply just cannot afford so what we're doing with the climate super fund and what this legislation would do would shift the cost of these climate disasters from New Jersey taxpayers onto the corporations responsible for the climate crisis itself how would it make these companies pay what would that cost structure look like how would they contribute yeah so first of all we're talking about only the largest and wealthiest fossil fuel companies in the world who do business in the state of New Jersey these companies who have emitted more than a billion tons of carbon pollution since 1995 would be assessed a proportional fee based on their percentage of those emissions and those fees would go to a fund in the Department of Environmental Protection that would be used to fund everything from rebuilding roadways and bridges that are washed out by storms to upgrading our wastewater treatment plants and our combined sewer and storm water infrastructure to make sure that every New Jerseyian has clean water and can withstand the increased flooding that is happening in our communities and that these floods won't damage uh homeowners and renters alike obviously these companies are pushing back on this they say that they've operated their companies within the bounds of the law and that this amounts to really a retroactive punishment for abiding within the bounds of the law what's your response to that yeah I mean just like the state of New Jersey did with the spill act just like the federal government has done with tobacco and the original super fund act all this legislation is doing is saying look you've benefited and profited handsomely from the production and sale of these fossil fuels and the pollution that you've caused as a result of that has harmed economically our state um has a cost in in lives lost but also all of the infrastructure and other damages to our state so it is only fair that you pay your share of the damages in New Jersey to clean up the mess that's been made with climate change um and to help New Jersey prepare for the extreme weather events and for the increased damages that are ahead you mentioned the federal government and we've seen the Trump administration sue New York and Vermont for similar super fund laws we know there are also about a dozen other states considering laws like this but if New Jersey does pass this bill does it open us up to costly litigation that again could impact taxpayers here in the state look any costs from litigation would pale in comparison to the tens of billions of dollars in costs that New Jersey residents have already experienced from climate change um further we have a federal administration who is antithetical even to the idea of science and climate science let alone holding these industries responsible these polluters responsible for the damages they've caused so this is common sense policy that the state of New Jersey needs to pursue and must pursue to address the affordability crisis in New Jersey to address the climate crisis in New Jersey and ultimately hold polluters responsible for the damages that they've caused well it is now up to the legislature this bill has passed through committee but now needs to go through the budget committees on both the Senate and Assembly we will be following Matt Smith New Jersey state director for Food and Water Watch thanks so much for joining us today thanks Joanna under the Dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting a private corporation funded by the American people