Make Polluters Pay: Pass the Climate Superfund Act, Op-ed by Councilmember Zahra Make Poll

First published in Community Voices of the Fullerton Observer

OP-ed By Ahmad Zahra, Fullerton City Council Member

June 3, 2025

We can no longer count on consistent support from the federal government when disaster strikes. FEMA funding can now be delayed or denied on a whim. President Trump has already blocked California’s requests for help even after homes, businesses, and lives were devastated. In California, our communities are under siege by escalating wildfires, heatwaves, and droughts. Between 1980 and 2024, 46 extreme weather and climate disaster events affected California, resulting in losses exceeding $1 billion each. We need an independent revenue stream to prepare for and recover from the next climate crisis disaster.

Too many Californians have lost their property, their work, and their worlds to the climate crisis. Tragically, the number of those who lose their lives will continue to rise unless we take more action to hold back the climate crisis. Last January, the world watched in horror as firestorms raged across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, leaving destruction that resembled a war zone. For survivors-friends and families, we knew existence has forever been changed. The trauma and anxiety can’t be measured, but the financial cost can. The devastation from those fires is estimated to exceed $250 billion, and yet the fossil fuel giants fueling the flames continue raking in profits, untouched and unaccountable.

Here in Fullerton, like many local communities, we’ve already felt the toll of extreme heat and infrastructure strain from fire-prone areas, such as our nature preserve, Coyote Hills, and other large open spaces, as well as rising water costs and aging roads. As a historic city, many of our neighborhoods are lined with older homes that lack modern protections against heat and wildfire smoke. One of my constituents, a new mom living in one of these older homes without air conditioning, shared with me how worried she feels about her infant during heatwaves when indoor temperatures become unbearable. Residents, especially our seniors, are growing increasingly anxious about the rising fire risk and the limited resources available to cope. While our city has made meaningful strides in sustainability, we’re still stretched very thin when disaster strikes. We cannot continue to ask working families to foot the bill. Our local communities deserve real investment in resilience, and that starts with holding corporate polluters accountable.

Residents throughout California are tired of having to pay for rebuilding their communities after a devastating fire or tumultuous storm wreaks havoc. State and local budgets are stretched to the brink as climate risks escalate, jeopardizing public services and forcing communities to bear the burden of addressing these climate-related emergencies. And there seems to be no end in sight as costs continue to mount from climate-related damages, increased insurance premiums, property taxes, and utility bills. People know this is not justice. They know there must be a better solution.

There is one. California has the power to redirect the financial burden away from its citizens and make Big Oil pay its fair share with the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act. It is a common-sense way for the state to tap into a small fraction of Big Oil’s profits and collect a fair share to alleviate the financial burden. New York passed a climate superfund bill in 2024, following Vermont the year before.

In 2024 alone, ExxonMobil generated $339.88 billion in revenue—part of a wider trend of Big Oil profits soaring while communities suffer. These same corporations have knowingly misled the public about the risks of fossil fuels, all while contributing to 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

They haven’t listened to the doctors, the frontline communities, or the parents whose children now suffer from asthma, respiratory ailments, and other pollution-related diseases. This is especially prevalent in lower-income communities in densely urban areas, as well as in suburban neighborhoods near active oil wells that emit noxious gases. A study in Environmental Research found that 34,000 Californians died prematurely in 2018 alone from fossil fuel air pollution. How long must this needless suffering go on?

Billion-dollar disasters have become too common, and the costs of climate damage are accelerating with every storm. We must take action now, and the California legislature is our best line of defense. The Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act returns resources to the communities that bear the burden and helps fund the work of rebuilding and preparing for what’s ahead. Fossil fuel polluters should be made accountable for their negligent actions and offset the costs. ‘We the People’ have been paying because of the devastation caused by their products.

Join me in supporting the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act for justice and our future. Contact your state assembly member and state senator to let them know about your climate crisis concerns and how passing this bill is the right way forward.

Let’s send a message: Californians will no longer subsidize the destruction of our communities.

The time to act is now. Contact one or all of them.

California Assemblymembers: https://www.assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers

California Senators: https://www.senate.ca.gov/senators