Some of the attendees of the Montclair Township climate meeting in Aprill. (Photo by Raeanne Raccagno)

This story was produced in collaboration with CivicStory as part of the NJ Ecology-Civics Reporting Project.

As the New Jersey Climate Superfund Act moves through legislation, individuals and organizations have been collaborating to advocate for its passage. As people lobby, attend rallies and testify to show their support, some individuals also use prayers of hope as they fight to protect the Earth they see as a gift.    

Empower New Jersey held four climate meetings in different towns in April and May, partnering with other organizations as part of a broader initiative to back the New Jersey Climate Superfund Act. The meetings urged towns to pass a resolution in support of the bill. At a May 20 meeting, the Montclair Town Council approved Empower New Jersey’s resolution in favor of the act by a vote of 5-2, joining over 30 other municipalities.

The resolution occurred after one of the climate meetings on April 27 that was held at the Montclair Township First Congregational Church, which has a green team that organizes environmental actions within and outside of its membership. Green Faith, is a multi-religion worldwide association committed to climate and environmental movement, according to its website.   

“What Green Faith does so well is it connects all these different people so we can amplify each other’s efforts and voices,” said Tracey Stephens, the New Jersey organizer for Green Faith and a green team member at the First Congregational Church. “It’s really like a moral and ethical imperative that our faith calls us to act on behalf of the planet and our communities.” 

The church’s green team is one of 16 congregations within Interfaith Climate Action. Interfaith Climate Action and other groups that are a part of Green Faith have been contacting their legislators, making phone calls, writing postcards, signing petitions, rallying and testifying at hearings to help promote the New Jersey Climate Superfund Act. 

If passed, the act would put the state treasurer in charge of assessing damages from greenhouse gas emissions that New Jersey residents have been affected by because of fossil fuel companies since 1995. Within two years of the bill being enacted, the treasurer will have to submit the assessment to the legislature. 

“There were 13 climate disasters … in New Jersey alone in the last 10 years, every county in our state had at least five,” said Sen. John McKeon, a primary sponsor of the bill, at a meeting. “It has cost the state close to $7 billion in that 10-year period alone to deal with the fallout from those disasters, and it’s only going to get worse. We’ve spent the third most per capita in the nation as it relates to climate disasters.”

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection will also be required to calculate how much responsibility each fossil fuel company has for climate change in proportion to the emissions they’ve created. They will then be charged accordingly to compensate for past damages. The money will be collected in a “Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program,” according to the bill.   

“It’s really just common sense that if you are causing the mess, you have to clean it up,” Stephens said. “It’s so frustrating that these fossil fuel companies are just getting away with selling their product, burning the fossil fuels, which is causing the climate crisis. And meanwhile, making billions in profits and not taking responsibility for the harm that they’re causing.”

Tracey Stephens addresses attendees at a climate forum in Montclair. (Photo by Raeanne Raccagno)

The bill was released by the Assembly environment committee on March 10 and is currently waiting for the next legislative committee meeting to be scheduled. Supporters of the bill are pushing for the act’s passage before New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s term is over in January, since the approval process would have to start over once a new governor comes into office. 

Throughout the meeting, organizers also urged attendees to call Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and tell him to co-sponsor the Climate Superfund bill, schedule the bill for Assembly hearings and schedule an Assembly floor vote before summer recess. 

“God entrusted us with the Earth. It’s a gift, it’s a responsibility to protect creation,” said Henry Baker Heivly, a Montclair High School student, at a meeting. “We have a voice and we need to use it to fight for our future. Protecting the Earth, protecting creation, is not optional; it’s essential.”

Baker Heivly also noted how those affected the most by climate change have the least amount of power, and that Christians have a duty to stand up for them. He mentioned how social change movements in the past have been led by faith leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Brown.   

“Christianity has a long history of environmentalism,” Baker Heivly said. “I’m a Methodist, so that means that we believe in trying to purify ourselves, purify the world’s sanctification, so you do that by trying to defend creation … It’s about bettering the world for the second coming, basically.”

Champions of the act will be holding the biggest rally of the year on June 2 in Trenton, New Jersey.

“We bring a different perspective and a more of a moral authority that maybe those in power might pay attention to because it’s more than self-interest,” said Stephens. “There’s yourself, but then we are also commanded in our faiths to care for our community and to care for our neighbors.”

This story was produced in collaboration with CivicStory as part of the NJ Ecology-Civics Reporting Project.

C0-published with The Signal.

Raeanne Raccagno is a CivicStory 2025 Ecology-Civics fellow and is a journalism and environmental studies major at TCNJ, where she writes for The Signal.