In Oakland, dozens of students walked out of class on Friday to support a state climate bill — the “Make Polluters Pay Superfund Act," which includes SB 684 in the Senate and AB 1243 in the Assembly.
Students held walkouts across the state, including at Berkeley High School.
"The Climate Superfund bill would require the top fossil fuel polluters, big oil, to pay their fair share for the climate crisis," said Isabel Penman, an organizer with Food and Water Watch who helped coordinate the walkout. "And that money would go to the state of California to invest in climate resiliency programs so that taxpayers — regular Californians — aren't the only ones footing the bill."
Similar bills have passed in New York and Vermont.
Students held signs that read "Make big oil pay" and "Clean power to the people" as they chanted, "PG&E you can't hide; we can see your greedy side."
Alejandro Tovar-Montaño, a junior at Castlemont High School in Oakland, said that growing up with asthma has shaped how he understands the impacts of climate change.
"A bunch of my other siblings have got asthma as well because of the bad air pollution," he said. "I don't want it for the rest of the future generations."
His experience motivated him to become a climate advocate. He says the "Make Polluters Pay" bill is important because it's putting big corporations in the hot seat.
"I don't think it's fair that they get to destroy communities and they have no consequences," he said.
If it passes, 40 percent of funds from the bill would go directly to disadvantaged communities.
But the bill is strongly opposed by oil and gas companies and unions like the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California. Keith Dunn is a lobbyist for that union. He spoke at a committee hearing on natural resources in April.
"Aspirational legislation such as AB 1243, when confronted by economic reality, causes loss of jobs, increased costs for goods and services and creates a stealth regressive tax on every Californian," he said. "Higher costs lead to increased energy prices, adding financial strain on working class families who are already struggling to survive in our nation's most expensive state."
The bill stalled in April, though its supporters hope it will be scheduled for a hearing again in 2026.
