Sponsors (4)
The bill trades higher near-term design, review, and implementation costs (and potential delays, especially for resource-limited localities) for more climate-resilient cleanups that better protect public health, infrastructure, and taxpayers from repeated future remediation costs.
Residents, including patients and communities near contaminated sites, will have stronger public-health protections because remedial plans must account for disasters and climate change that can mobilize contaminants.
Local communities (urban and rural) will get remediation plans designed for increased flood, storm, and other extreme-weather risks, improving the durability of cleanups and protecting infrastructure and future site uses.
Taxpayers and local governments are less likely to pay for repeated fixes over time because requiring climate-resilient remedies reduces the chance of future failures and long-term cleanup costs.
Taxpayers and local governments may face higher upfront cleanup design and planning costs because incorporating climate projections increases complexity and initial spending.
Smaller or resource-constrained localities (especially rural communities) may struggle to meet heightened review and implementation expectations, shifting administrative and financial burdens to state or local governments.
Revising remedies to withstand extreme events could extend project timelines, delaying site reuse, redevelopment, or economic activity in affected communities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires CERCLA remedial selection and review to account for local natural disasters, extreme weather, and projected climate-driven changes when assessing remedy protectiveness.
Official title: To amend the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 to provide for the consideration of climate change, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 15, 2026 by Emanuel Cleaver · Last progress April 15, 2026
Requires federal cleanup decisions under CERCLA to account for local natural disasters, extreme weather events, and how those hazards are projected to change because of climate change, and to re-evaluate selected remedies to ensure they remain protective when those climate- and weather-related threats are considered. It changes the statutory list of factors that guide remedial selection and review so that climate-exacerbated hazards are an explicit consideration.