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Committee pares back climate super-fund bill to a DEP cost assessment, approves study and report deadline
Summary
Members voted to reconsider LD 1870 and approved an amendment directing DEP to contract for an assessment of the state's fiscal costs from greenhouse-gas emissions for 1995–2024, with a report due Jan. 1, 2028. DEP estimated the study could cost about $600,000.
The committee voted to reconsider LD 1870 and then adopted an amendment that narrows the bill to require an assessment of the fiscal costs to the state attributable to greenhouse-gas emissions for the covered period Jan. 1, 1995 through Dec. 31, 2024.
Under the adopted amendment, the Department of Environmental Protection will conduct the assessment or contract with a consultant to do so and submit a report to the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2028. The amendment removes the bills broader enforcement and recovery provisions and preserves only the study-and-report requirement, and it authorizes the committee to file implementing legislation in the 2028 session if committee members choose to do so.
Commissioner Melanie Loism told the committee that Marylands similar assessment carried a fiscal estimate of about $600,000 and Vermont contracted for a comparable assessment at roughly $500,000; DEP estimated a $600,000 study cost and said it does not currently have the funding and would rely on appropriations. Committee members who supported the amendment said an assessment would produce useful fiscal information to guide future policy; members who opposed cited litigation-related concerns raised in other states.
Representative Riley moved the majority recommendation to pass LD 1870 as amended by Senator Brener; the committee voted 9–3 in favor and reported the amended bill out with the study directive and a Jan. 1, 2028 report deadline.
