Just this past May, the Vermont legislature passed Act 122 (S.259), the Climate Superfund Bill also known as “Make Big Oil Pay!” The idea behind it is that Vermont taxpayers will blow $600,000 hiring a bunch of consultants and bureaucrats to manufacture a sciencey-looking, totally serious – no really — accounting of the damage done by fossil fuel companies to Vermonters through their selling us the products we need to do things like drive around, do our jobs, and, not for nothing, survive New England winters. The bastards!
At the end of this Microsoft Excel-based exercise in Kabuki theater, Vermont will present a bill to all the Big Oil companies that have done business in Vermont between 1995 and present with the expectation that these firms will, well, just cut us a check. (Pause here for extended hysterical laughter by the reader.)
Of course, that check won’t willingly be cut. Rather the response will be along the lines of, “So sue us!” perhaps with some illustrative suggestions for where to stick that $600,000 piece of fantasy fiction. That’s when the real waste of time and taxpayer money will kick in.
As the Joint Fiscal Office stated:
The longer-term fiscal impacts [of Act 122] are nearly impossible to estimate. Before any funds would be deposited into the Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program Fund, the State is likely to face substantial legal fees. Fossil fuel producers and refiners would be expected to sue the State over its right to demand cost recovery payments from them. Any legal action could drag on for years, especially if Vermont is the first state to require such cost recovery payments.
Vermont would be the first state to try this, but not the first municipality. And just this week we got a pretty clear picture of where such as legal battle is likely to go when Maryland judge, Videtta Brown, tossed out of court Baltimore vs British Petroleum et al, et al referring to twenty-five other oil companies.
Going into the case the plaintiff should have been thrilled at the judge assigned. Brown was appointed by a Democrat governor, Martin O’Mally, in a heavily left-leaning district, and she appears to be entirely sympathetic to the cause, the opening line of her opinion being, “There is no question global warming and climate change are wreaking havoc on our environment.” Buuuuuut… that pesky rule of law thing.
The key point in Brown’s decision was, “…the Constitution’s federal structure does not allow the application of state law to claims like those presented by Baltimore.” The ruling also states that, “Bald assertions and conclusory statements by the pleader will not suffice.” And in her last point in explaining the decision to dismiss the suit the she wrote, “…the allegations of deceptive promotion and marketing of Defendants’ products is simply artful pleading.”
So, there’s that. And it is important to point out to Vermonters wondering what to expect from our own venture down this road that it took six years – over half a decade – of paying lawyers for the Baltimore court to tell the plaintiffs, to quote another famous judge (Smails from Caddyshack), “You’ll get nothing and like it!”
Now, the appeal of “Make Big Oil Pay” to your typical low-information voter is obvious. Who among us wouldn’t be thrilled to have someone other than us agree to foot the substantial bill for our infrastructure upgrades, clean-up projects, and more. Make Big Oil pay? Hell yeah! But it ain’t gonna happen. And in the meantime, we are going to dump a whole lot of money and time – neither commodity we can’t afford to waste – down a legal commode.
The politicians and activists who pushed and passed Act 122 are now patting themselves on the back and doing their best to paint themselves as heroes for taking on those big, evil corporations. But all they’re really doing is kicking the can of infrastructure climate change protection and adaptation measures — and all the real world hard decisions that entails –years, and who knows how many more major floods, down the road.
Governor Scott thankfully refused to sign this ridiculous bill when it reached his desk, but, alas, it did become law without his signature. Electing radical, veto-proof Democrat/Progressive Supermajorities to the House and Senate does have its consequences.
