With climate extremes and disasters growing year after year  – with 2024 being the hottest year on record, and 2025 starting off with horrific Los Angeles wildfires, the most costly un-natural disaster ever in the US – it is understandable that communities, residents, voters, and taxpayers are all worried about how to pay for rebuilding and adapting in the face of mounting climate impacts. And especially worried when the Trump Administration is cutting federal disaster relief and FEMA, NOAA’s weather services and forecasting, and research on climate change and clean energy solutions, among the countless other cuts and chaos. 

So, no wonder that at least 10 states in 2025 introduced state legislation to address this funding gap by making fossil fuel companies pay their fair share of contributions to climate change impacts. This follows the two new “Climate Superfund” laws adopted in 2024 in the states of Vermont and New York, where Third Actors helped build public support and persuade state legislators to pass the bills and influence NY State Governor Hochul to sign the bill into law. Third Actors are at it again and are working in numerous states to pass more of these “make polluters pay” bills.

The approach is based on past legal approaches that have held Big Tobacco and big hazardous waste and toxic polluters accountable for the health impacts and messes they made. The “Climate Superfunds” created by the proposed bills generally impose a fee on large greenhouse gas emitters’ past emissions and the amounts are determined using the established climate attribution science methods, raising billions of dollars from large oil, coal, and gas companies over a specified period like 25 years. Read on for details on our progress, the status of various bills, and what you can do.

Progress on State Climate Superfund Legislation

Third Act Maryland, together with the big statewide Chesapeake Climate Action Network, helped build support for the RENEW Act (Responding to Emergency Needs From Extreme Weather Act) to to make polluters pay. Third Actors participated in numerous rallies at the state house, attended sessions, lobbied legislators, submitted testimony, shared on social media, called and wrote legislators, and more. While the RENEW Act did not pass in its original form, it was amended to become a “study bill” and renamed the “Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation: Total Assessed Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Study and Reports” bill (HB0128/SB0149). It passed both the Maryland House and Senate and has moved to Governor Wes Moore’s desk for signature, and it is expected that the Governor will sign the bill by the May 27 deadline as it has strong bipartisan support. The Maryland General Assembly committed to the first step of “Making Polluters Pay” by requiring the Comptroller’s Office to lead and complete a study by December 2026 to quantify the cost-impacts of climate change in the State of Maryland. This will make Maryland the third state, after Vermont and New York, to pass legislation in support of enacting the climate superfund concept and principle. To make fossil fuel companies pay their fair share of the costs of climate change, we will have to come back to the Maryland General Assembly with another bill after the study is done.  

New Jersey is a state where volunteers are preparing to launch a new state-level Working Group soon, and it’s also a state that has introduced a Climate Super Fund Act. Third Act supporters in New Jersey and also members of Third Act Union affinity group have been collaborating with partner Food & Water Watch to host 5 “town hall” style meetings to educate New Jerseyites about the bill and what it would do. Third Actors are also collecting petition signatures and postcards that they will deliver to legislative leaders in mid-May, urging leadership to get the bills posted and voted on. They’ve been working to get legislator co-sponsors of the bill (32 co-sponsors in the Assembly & 8 in the Senate so far)  and town resolutions in support of the bill (36 towns have signed resolutions in favor with at least 8 more pending), which was a successful strategy in New York State. The NJ Climate Super Fund Act passed in both the Assembly and Senate environmental committees and is now pending in the Assembly Budget and Senate Commerce Committees. The state coalition is working to get the bill passed before the July summer recess.

California is a big state where Third Act has three Working Groups – Third Act Bay Area, Third Act Sacramento, and Third Act SoCal – and is the world’s fifth largest economy. The Golden State has introduced two companion Climate Superfund bills (AB and SB). There is a huge statewide coalition led by the Center for Biological Diversity that Third Act is participating in. Third Act Working Groups in California have been working to build public support through getting Third Actors to take action and email their legislators, getting signatures on digital petitions (link), calling and meeting with state legislators on key committees, attending a press conference in Los Angeles, participating in committee hearings and rallies in Sacramento, joining with environmental justice allies to bring attention to climate impacts in frontline communities like in Richmond, CA (link to Bay Area blog), and more. The Senate bill passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee and the Assembly bill passed out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. There are several more committee hearings to go in both the Assembly and the Senate, and then the bills must pass each house with a two-thirds majority because these bills impose a fee. The California legislature does not adjourn until September 12 and Governor has until Octoebr 12 to sign bills. So there’s a ways to go to continue to build visible and vocal public and political support and persuade key legislators to support the bills.  

Bills Pending With Promise

There are at least two other bills that are still pending in the Maine and Massachusetts legislatures and Third Act working groups are actively working to get those passed.

Third Act Maine is collaborating with Maine Youth For Climate Justice, which is the lead organization putting forward the Maine Climate Superfund Act, as well as Maine’s Environmental Priorities Coalition, a statewide alliance of 39 conservation, climate action, and public health organizations. There was a Youth Day of Action at the Maine State House on April 17th where Third Act Mainers joined up with youth activists. The bill was introduced on April 25 and a public hearing will be scheduled early to mid May. The coalition will be working to pass this by the end of session on June 20, 2025.  (photo from youth climate day)

Third Act Massachusetts is working to build support for the Massachusetts Climate Change Adaptation Cost Recovery Act together with the statewide “Make Polluters Pay MA” coalition. Third Act MA and the coalition are gathering petition signatures and working on organizing a big in-person “lobby day.” Work is ongoing to persuade more towns and municipalities in Massachusetts to endorse the bill, and to activate more Bay Staters to engage with their state legislators. These bills have been introduced in a two-year session, and so there is more time to organize visible support before committee assignments and a vote in 2026. 

Bills That Faced Pitfalls, But May Return

Other states introduced similar legislation in 2025, but some bills did not pass out of committee or get a hearing or a vote, such as in Tennessee and Connecticut. Third Act Connecticut collaborated with partners and got an op-ed published, but opposition from big business won out. 

Third Act Oregon supported the Oregon Make Polluters Pay Act by hosting an educational webinar for Third Act Oregon supporters, submitting written testimony, and participating in a hearing on April 7, which included legal and climate experts as well as survivors of Oregon’s wildfires. Unfortunately, the bill died in the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment without a vote. Senator Khanh Pham, one of the authors, said she would continue to bring forward and advocate for this kind of legislation in future legislative sessions and that there is no time to waste for taking action to address climate change. 

How You Can Help

One indication of both the promise for advancing climate resilience and the threat that “Make Polluters Pay” bills pose to the fossil fuel industry is that the Trump Administration has singled out these laws and signed an Executive Order directing the Attorney General to go after states’ climate laws. The House also passed a bill that would give “blanket immunity” to Big Oil and fossil fuel companies from any lawsuits or legislation striving to hold them accountable for their contributions to climate change, impacts, and damages. That bill is pending in the Senate, and we have an opportunity to kill it because it will unlikely get the full 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. 

So, while there are several bills still working their way through state legislatures – and you can join a Third Act Working Group to get more involved in your state, people all across the US can sign this petition to Congress that will get delivered to Senators and ask them to oppose this Big Oil bailout. We can’t give this toxic industry any more free passes when our communities are burning, flooding, and being destroyed by climate change.

The retirement plan arena is ripe to bring about change and impact for environmental and social responsibility. By retirement plans, we are referring to employer-sponsored plans like 401Ks and 403Bs, where employers offer employees a means of setting aside a portion of their pay and investing these funds – sometimes matched with an employer contribution – in various equities, bonds, and other instruments through an outside asset manager. Depending on what study you refer to and what definition is applied, retirement plans total $32 trillion dollars as of September 30, 2022. This is a large amount of capital that could be invested in projects and program that could make a significant impact in clean energy and healthy communities.

Evaluating Retirement Plan Investments

First things first. Before making changes, you will want to know what the retirement plan is currently invested in. Whether you are the person in charge of the retirement plan as an employer, a member of the plan’s investment committee, or an employee, you have a right to ask about what the plan invests in and question why it is making those types of investments. The next thing to do is be clear on the organization’s values and your own values and priorities.

Against that backdrop, consider using the Fossil Free Funds website to evaluate some of your plan’s investments. Here is an example of an investment that has more than $283 billion in fund assets: The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. As you can see from the Fossil Free Funds website’s rating for this Vanguard fund, this investment has over $114 billion invested in fossil fuel companies and receives a grade of F. In other words, it is contributing to climate change. Ask yourself how this squares with your organization’s values and your own.

You can dig a little deeper. Scroll 2/3rd of the way down the results’ screen and look at the full report card. Each of the assigned categories/ letter grades can be clicked on for more data. Do these arenas (i.e., private prisons) reflect your or your organization’s values?

Other tools are available too. In addition to the Fossil Free Funds website, you can ask your financial or plan advisor to look at Morningstar ratings on an investment’s sustainability, as well as the read the Fossil Free Fund’s Plan Sponsor Toolkit.

How to Change a Retirement Plan’s Fund Choices

Equipped with information about your plan’s investments, now let’s look at the heart of the matter: how can we change the investment choices in the retirement plan to include options that meet your environmental and social values, such as funds that do not invest in fossil fuels or prisons. 

If you are the owner or sole decision maker over the retirement plan, you can simply tell your retirement plan staff to change the plan investments to fossil fuel free. Timothy shared the example of Re:Vision Architecture, a green architecture and planning firm focused on sustainable buildings, and how the two co-founders instructed the HR person to make the needed investment changes to the retirement plan to align with the firm’s mission and purpose. The changes were accomplished in less than 45 days.

If your organization’s culture is collaborative and one that includes employee input combined with strong leadership, you might look to this example from Health Care Without Harm, a Virginia-based non-profit focused on greening the healthcare industry. This example shows the needs for firm leadership as well as how inspiring it can be to employees to see their organization living its values. Numerous internal discussions were held to make this switch to fossil-fuel-free investments as well as design an investment policy statement that reflected these values

Furthermore, your plan’s financial advisor should help with finding appropriate investments. One short cut is whether your advisor can do all the work. This is known as a 3(38) fiduciary. As a 3(38) fiduciary, your advisor will take full responsibility for researching, choosing, and implementing the needed investment switches. Ask your advisor in what fiduciary capacity they are acting. 

Lastly, your advisor should be able to tell you if your plan is “open architecture” and able to invest in any fund, rather than only in a limited set of fund choices. Open architecture plans can easily add any funds, so you can suggest climate-friendly or other funds that align with your values.

Advocate for Sustainable Retirement Plans

To succeed in changing an employer-sponsored retirement plan will likely require that many employees request more environmentally and socially responsible investment choices. So, build a coalition of like-minded employees and press for change. You can catalyze these changes. Never forget your agency and the power of one. 

Check-out the other webinar recordings, resource guides, blogs, and FAQs in the Responsible Finance Collection.

NOTE: THIRD ACT IS LEGALLY PROHIBITED FROM GIVING INVESTMENT ADVICE AS WE ARE NOT CERTIFIED INVESTMENT ADVISORS. WE HAVE INVITED FINANCIAL PLANNING PROFESSIONALS TO SHARE THEIR EXPERTISE. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIRD ACT DOES NOT HAVE ANY CONTRACTUAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE SPEAKERS, AND WE ARE NOT ENDORSING THEIR SERVICES. THESE ARE EDUCATIONAL EVENTS AND RESOURCES WHERE WE ARE SHARING INFORMATION FOR YOU TO IMPLEMENT IN YOUR LIVES IN WAYS THAT FIT WITH YOUR PERSONAL STRATEGIES, RISK TOLERANCE, AND FINANCIAL NEEDS.

About the Author:

Timothy Yee is the Chief Retirement Specialist and Co-Founder of Green Retirement, Inc., a founding B-Corporation and a minority and woman-owned financial advisory firm. Timothy focuses on sustainable, responsible, and fossil-free investment options in corporate and nonprofit retirement plans. He serves as a fiduciary for his clients, among them 350.org and Trillium Asset Management.

Timothy has extensive experience in the financial services industry, having worked as a branch manager and an executive at several banks. Timothy is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary and holds numerous FINRA registrations. He has been quoted in various media including the New York Times, Fiduciary News, and The Fiscal Times.

Timothy hosted the show, What Really Matters!, a weekly financial radio program on KKGN 960AM. He is also an ambassador for the Social Venture Network and B Corporations. Timothy graduated with honors (cum laude) from the University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Timothy’s latest passion is geocaching. He is having so much fun tracking caches wherever he goes!