The courts will decide if the first “climate superfund” law in the nation survives, a likely years-long battle. Vermont towns, meanwhile, must figure out how to pay for infrastructure that extreme weather won’t destroy.
RUTLAND, Vt.—Eighteen years after the first “climate tort” lawsuit was filed, no U.S. plaintiff has collected damages for the harms of global warming. Now, Vermont’s different legal strategy to make fossil fuel companies pay is facing its first real test.