This story was provided from the NJ State House News Service through the NJ News Commons.

The “Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey More Affordable Act” that would make fossil fuel companies fund environmental clean-up passed on a 10-4 vote following a heated Assembly committee hearing Tuesday.

The bill, A3735, would require major fossil fuel companies to help fund New Jersey’s response to the environmental impacts of climate change.

The legislation aims to establish a $50 billion fund dedicated to preventing and resolving climate-related disasters, and would create a body to oversee and monitor the money.

The fund will help support flood mitigation efforts, infrastructure improvements, public health initiatives, and protections against extreme heat and other climate-related disasters.

Assemblyman Balvir Singh, a Democrat from Burlington Township and a sponsor of the bill, told reporters, “It’s our communities that end up paying the cost for the long run, through the air we suck in, or the water we drink, or just every day … in our life.” He said the fund would help guarantee climate security for future generations.

“Doing nothing is not free. We’re already paying the price,” Assembly Member Carmen Theresa Morales, a Democrat from Belleville, said.  

The measure would move financial responsibility from the state and its taxpayers to the companies.

“When a small child makes a mess, as a parent, or – in my case – an uncle, we make them clean up that mess. That’s not punishment. That’s responsible parenting,” Matt Smith, the regional organizer of Food and Water Watch said.

The hearing revealed a sharp divide between environmental activists, who argued in favor of the bill, and business groups, refinery operators and local operators who warned that the bill could increase costs and threaten jobs.

“Shame on you. Shame,” Assembly Member Jay Webber, a Republican from Morris Plains, sternly told the panel of activists. “[The bill] takes money and directs it to special interest groups that you like, you control, and you want to benefit. We had a witness here who said the best thing about this is that 51% of the proceeds go to people we like, communities of color and other people.”

“So it’s a cash grab,” he said. “And it hurts everybody in the state, including the people you claim to be helping, who have pension funds and retirement accounts invested in these companies and need them to succeed in order to have a secure retirement.”

“For any number of reasons, this is a bad deal,” Webber said.

The committee’s vote clears a path for a full Assembly vote. An identical measure previously passed the Senate Environment and Energy Committee 6-2, and is pending before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.