Amid National Call to ‘Make Polluters Pay,’ Illinois Lawmakers Are Prepping a Climate Change Superfund Bill

Illinois lawmakers plan to introduce a climate change superfund bill in the state legislature this session, the latest in a growing number of states seeking to make fossil fuel companies pay up for the fast-growing financial fallout of climate change. 

As the costs of global warming rise—in the form of home insurance premiums, utility bills, health expenses and record-breaking damages from extreme weather—local advocates are increasingly pushing states to require that fossil fuel companies contribute to climate “superfunds” that would support mitigation and adaptation.

Illinois state Rep. Robyn Gabel, who will introduce the bill in the House, said she is motivated by the growing threat of flooding and heat waves in the state.

“The costs with climate change are going to be extravagant, and it’s going to end up on the backs of the taxpayers, and the oil companies continue to walk away with huge profits,” said Gabel, an Evanston Democrat. “Polluting companies should be responsible for the damage they cause.”

Advocates will rally on Thursday morning in Chicago to support what’s known as the “Make Polluters Pay” effort as part of a national week of action, with climate activists and disaster survivors holding events across the country, including in Connecticut, Colorado, California, New Jersey and Maine. Two states—New York and Vermont—have already passed climate superfund laws. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. has just officially exited the Paris Climate Agreement, the latest in the federal government’s continued backsliding on climate progress, and ongoing cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency put increasing strain on states and cities. Advocates and some Democratic lawmakers are pushing states to fill the gap. 

“It’s time for us to step up,” said Gina Ramirez, director of Midwest environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a member of the coalition fighting for the Illinois bill. 

“We’re a blue state, so we need to … implement ways to improve infrastructure and health and combat climate change.” 

This month, a climate superfund bill was introduced in Rhode Island. On Monday, a councilmember in Washington, D.C., announced a bill to study the financial impacts of climate change on the city and potentially require compensation from fossil-fuel companies. On Wednesday, a superfund bill in Maine was voted out of committee and will proceed to a full vote in the state Senate. 

“It only makes sense as our bills get higher and we pay the price for climate change, that polluters, the oil and gas industry, pay their fair share as well,” Ramirez said. 

Climate superfund bills are based on the premise that the companies most heavily contributing to the climate crisis should be on the hook to pay for its growing costs. The strategy pulls from the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act—known as Superfund—which forces companies responsible for toxic contamination to pay for cleanup.

The idea is broadly popular among the public, according to polling by Data for Progress and Fossil Free Media. They found that 71 percent of a national sample of likely voters were in favor of oil and gas companies paying a share of climate-related damages. 

But the bills have faced pushback from the Trump administration. The New York and Vermont laws are both facing legal challenges from the fossil fuel industry and the U.S. Department of Justice. The agency, which called the measures “burdensome and ideologically motivated,” has also sought to block Michigan and Hawaii from suing fossil fuel companies to pay for climate costs like adaptive infrastructure or public health interventions. 

The American Petroleum Institute included fighting superfund legislation in its list of 2026 priorities, claiming the laws would “bypass Congress and threaten affordability.”

Cassidy DiPaola, communications director for Fossil Free Media and the Make Polluters Pay campaign, said that advocates are not deterred. 

“We recognize that this is a David versus Goliath fight, but we’re not going to back down,” DiPaola said. “It’s what the majority of the population wants, and it’s something that’s simple and fair and makes a lot of sense.”

Rising Costs of Climate Change

Last year, the nonprofit Climate Central launched an online database to track the most costly weather- and climate-related disasters across the country. The effort was led by the same lead scientist who tracked those costs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—until the Trump administration axed the project in May. 

In 2025, the U.S. experienced 23 such disasters with costs totaling at least $1 billion, for a total of $115 billion, Climate Central concluded. From 1980 through 2025, the U.S. has experienced 426 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, for a total of more than $3.1 trillion in damages.

Meanwhile, home insurance rates are rising and insurance companies are increasingly backing out of areas with high risks from hurricanes or wildfires. Researchers have also documented how climate change causes premature deaths and increasing health care costs as it fuels disease and other health problems.

Illinois is struggling with worsening flooding, heat waves and air pollution—including from Canadian wildfires. All bring heavy costs. 

State Sen. Graciela Guzmán, a Chicago Democrat who will introduce the superfund legislation in Illinois’ Senate, said the bill is a practical step to bring funding to local schools, families and governments already struggling with these consequences. 

“This bill is about setting a fairer standard for who pays when climate damage hits our towns and neighborhoods,” Guzmán wrote in an email.

Ramirez’s basement, in her home on the Southeast Side of Chicago, was flooded on and off with sewage water for a week last summer when her sewer line broke during a rainstorm that caused severe flash flooding throughout the city. Her home insurance wouldn’t cover the thousands of dollars it took to repair it, she said. She sees it as an example of what the effort to “make polluters pay” could address.

“This superfund climate bill would create revenue to fix the infrastructure and be able to combat all this bad stuff that’s happening,” she added. 

In the past two years, Americans experienced a slew of devastating disasters, from Hurricanes Helene and Milton to the Los Angeles wildfires and Texas floods. Hundreds of thousands are reportedly still without power after a punishing winter storm made worse by global warming. 

All of that contributes to growing momentum to make polluters pay, said DiPaola, of Fossil Free Media. 

“People were looking at their insurance bills, they were looking at their utility bills, they were seeing the costs of climate damage and also everyday climate costs just really rising,” DiPaola said. “They wanted some accountability.”