With the recovery efforts underway after Hurricane Helene, we have seen that repair efforts can fall on taxpayers. Here in New York, local officials and activists gathered to urge Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill that supporters argue would relieve some disaster-related stress for local governments.

"Sign the bill."

That was the rallying cry coming from local officials and activists outside the Poughkeepsie Train Station. The bill is the Climate Change Superfund Act. It would raise about $75 billion, paid by big oil companies and used to assist with disaster relief. It’s already passed the state Assembly and Senate.

Michael Richardson, co-facilitator for activist group Third Act, says Hochul needs to make it law.

“Allows us to go to the polluters and require them to pay their share of what is going on with the climate damage, that we’re also aware of today because of the storms in the Carolinas and Georgia," he said. 

What You Need To Know

  • New York's legislature passed a bill that would establish a climate change superfund 

  • The superfund would generate about $75 billion, paid for by big oil companies, and used to assist with disaster relief

  • Elected officials and activists are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the bill

    • Vermont was the first state in the nation to pass a climate superfund and New York is looking to become the second. Elected officials like state Sen. Michelle Hinchey say this kind of bill is a priority.

    “It is expensive to clean up after these storms and these once-in-a-century, once-in-a-generation storms are happening now once, twice, three times a year across the country, including here in the Hudson Valley," she said. "We have had tornadoes. We've had ice storms. We've had record-flooding. You name it. We have it now.”

    Joining state and local officials was Rep. Pat Ryan, who wants to see the state legislation signed and said he supports efforts to create the same kind of superfund on the federal level.

    “What you saw today is local, county, state and federal elected officials all working together saying we need to make corporate polluters pay, not our residents, for all the damage that they're doing," Ryan said. 

    Richardson said a bill like this would go a long way to saving taxpayers money, especially critical when weather disasters strike vulnerable communities.

    “That's just not fair," he said. "What we're saying to the big oil producers that produced the greenhouse gases that are causing the climate change. Hey, just give us a few bucks. Pay some of your fair share.”