Sen. Van Hollen pushing for legislation requiring biggest polluters to pay damage

MARYLAND- United States Senator Chris Van Hollen held a press conference Wednesday pushing for new legislation that would require the biggest polluters to pay for damage they’ve done.

Senator Van Hollen said the bill would require about 25 to 30 of the biggest US based polluters to pay billions of dollars over 10 years into a climate fund.

Also, money from the fund will come from the biggest of these fossil fuel companies who were responsible for at least .05% of total carbon dioxide and methane emissions between 2000 and 2019.

We’re told the money will help to implement measures to mitigate the damage.

“We know that huge volumes of carbon admissions have caused and are continuing to cause at an accelerating rate a great harm,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, said.

“So, what we are saying here is simple, those who have contributed most to the harm should be responsible for helping to pay for the cause to clean up the harm done and mitigate the damages done,” Sen. Van Hollen said.

We’re told the Treasury Department and the EPA would create techniques to determine each companies share of emissions.

The money would also be used for building resilient infrastructure, deploying more clean energy technology, and supporting communities impacted by the damage.