Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Supervisor Jackie Speier, District 1
Supervisor Lisa Gauthier, District 4
Subject: California Legislation for Climate Superfund
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution supporting California legislation for a climate superfund.
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BACKGROUND:
Climate change, driven in large part by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather and climate-related disasters across California, including devastating wildfires, torrential storms, severe flooding, extreme heat, unprecedented drought, damaging sea level rise, and worsening air quality.
Globally and locally, climate change disproportionately impacts populations that are least responsible for its causes, including historically underserved communities. It places increasing financial burdens on local governments, taxpayers, residents, and small businesses through rising costs for emergency response, public health impacts, infrastructure repair, disaster recovery, property damage, food system disruptions, and long-term climate adaptation.
California experienced historic wildfire seasons in 2020, with 8,648 wildfires burning more than 4.3 million acres, including in San Mateo County with the CZU Lightning Complex fire. In 2025, with the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles alone burned 37,000 acres, destroying 16,000 structures, resulting in the deaths of 30 community members and displacement of thousands of families, and causing over $250 billion in damages.
Climate change has resulted in increased drought conditions in the region, including an unprecedented multi-year drought that led to a 1-in-500-year low in Sierra snowpack and $2.1 billion in economic and job losses. The droughts not only exacerbate threats from wildfire, flooding, and landslides, but also threaten the region’s water supply.
Extreme heat, increased wildfires, and drought contribute to higher levels of particulate matter and air pollution in San Mateo County, which trigger asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses leading to an increase in emergency department visits, and contributing to the region’s high asthma rates. The air pollution impacts fall disproportionately on low-income communities and residents living near high-traffic areas already burdened by vehicle emissions.
San Mateo County, bordered on two sides by water with the San Francisco Bay to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the West, contains some 109 total miles of ocean and bay coastline. San Mateo is the only county on the West Coast with more than 100,000 residents at risk of three feet of sea level rise, which jeopardizes its communities as well as sewer systems, beaches, parks, roads, civil infrastructure, and essential public services. The estimated cost for sea level rise adaptation along the county Bayshore through 2050 is $11 billion.
In December 2022 and early 2023, California experienced one of the longest stretches of continuous atmospheric-river activity observed in decades, bringing heavy rainfall, flooding, landslides, and strong winds across California. The impacts included disrupted transportation, damaged infrastructure, and significant emergency response resources costing the County an estimated $22.9 million.
Communities across California, including San Mateo County, and especially communities that are historically underserved, continue to bear the overwhelming public costs associated with climate-related disasters and the investments necessary to prepare for and respond to climate impacts.
In the interest of fairness and fiscal responsibility, the costs of climate impacts should not be borne solely by taxpayers and local governments but should be paid by those whose activities contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.
DISCUSSION:
In February 2025, the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 was introduced (SB 684 (Menjivar) and AB 1243 (Addis)). The proposed legislation would establish a California Climate Superfund, modeled on the federal Superfund law (CERCLA) and California’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act. The Act would create a comprehensive cost study of climate damages in California, establish a mechanism to recover revenue from the largest fossil fuel polluters based on past emissions, and dedicate those funds to projects across the state, including in San Mateo County, to address climate-related damages resulting from the extraction, production, refining, sale, and combustion of fossil fuels and their products.
Other states, including Vermont and New York, have enacted climate superfund laws requiring major fossil fuel companies to contribute toward the costs of climate damages. In May 2025, the federal administration sued to block Vermont and New York’s laws. That litigation is ongoing.
The County currently is involved in an ongoing lawsuit to hold Big Oil accountable for their decades of deception and denial regarding the known, dire risks their products pose. Legislation for a California Climate Superfund would be distinct from, complementary to, and would not affect that ongoing lawsuit.
In July 2025, The Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 was withdrawn by the sponsors and is expected to be re-introduced in January 2027. In the interim, local support, such as the County’s, is sought to encourage the legislature to pass the Act when it is reintroduced. Other local California agencies, including the Counties of Santa Clara, Alameda, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma, the City and County of San Francisco, and the cities of San Jose, Oakland, and Santa Barbara, have provided written support for this anticipated legislation.
The proposed resolution supports the policy goals of legislation establishing a California Climate Superfund and encourages the California State Legislature to reintroduce and advance legislation that holds major fossil fuel polluters financially accountable for a share of the climate-related costs borne by California communities
The County Attorney’s Office has reviewed and approved the resolution as to form.
COMMUNITY IMPACT:
Funds generated through a California Climate Superfund Act would be used for mitigation, adaptation, and recovery efforts in San Mateo County, with a large percentage (some 40%) going to disadvantaged communities. The funds could support investments in climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, infrastructure protection, and community resilience, helping ensure that the financial burden of climate impacts does not fall solely on taxpayers and local governments. Effective legislation would allocate funds based on the severity of risks and damages to people and infrastructure, or other mechanisms, such as regional/local planning and implementation block grants, that provides appropriate allocation for climate-change harms experienced by localities.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Adoption of this resolution will have no net county cost.