Oil lobby tanking climate Superfund bills and more news from the states

Good evening. Tonight we begin with a look at the effort to establish climate Superfunds in the states — and the lobbying effort they're up against. 

Even as states move to finalize ballots, top courts are still deciding major issues: top judges in Missouri and Maryland put redistricting referendums back before voters and Indiana’s Supreme Court is deciding how to settle the legal challenge in a three-vote state Senate race. 

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to — again — overturn a lower court and allow it to enforce a U.S. Postal Service rule restricting mail-in voting. And legal experts weighed in on fears of election meddling by the administration.

Oregon lawmakers next week will confront another record bill for the costs of fighting massive wildfires across the state, which have been exacerbated by unseasonable heat and ongoing drought, Oregon Capital Chronicle reports. 

The state and others have tried in recent years to create so-called climate Superfunds — modeled after the federal Superfund program that requires polluters to pay for cleanup at the nation’s most contaminated sites. The state Superfund bills target companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and about 50 other oil, gas, coal and cement producers that are directly linked to 80% of the world’s global greenhouse gas emissions during the past decade alone.

The proposals in a dozen states have found widespread public support. But across states, that support has been no match for the behind-the-scenes lobbying of the fossil fuels industry, according to new research from Brown University’s Climate and Development Lab. 

Superfund laws that passed in New York and Vermont have not taken effect in the face of legal challenges. On Monday, a federal judge ruled against New York’s Superfund law. 

Oregon state Sen. Jeff Golden, who championed so-far unsuccessful Superfund bills there, is retiring before the next legislative session. He said he’s spoken to colleagues who may continue pursuing the legislation. 

“There’s not much choice but to bring it back again,” he said. “We’re out of alternatives for paying for the damages of climate chaos in Oregon. They are big and they’ll get bigger, and there’s no other place to turn unless you want Oregonians and taxpayers to pay for it.”

In Missouri, the state Supreme Court ruled that a referendum on the gerrymandered congressional map muscled through the Legislature in 2025 will go before voters in November, and that the new districts cannot be used in the general election, Missouri Independent reports. 

The decision puts a congressional plan before voters for the first time since 1922 and affirms that the Missouri Constitution’s provision allowing voter-initiated referendums applies to redistricting plans as well as almost all other legislation.

The political action committee People Not Politicians gathered more than 300,000 signatures to force the referendum.

The Supreme Court of Maryland had questions for both sides during two hours of arguments Thursday on whether a proposed redistricting amendment to the state constitution can move forward, Maryland Matters reports. 

Hours later, the court ruled that it would allow the measure to move forward — with a new version written by the judges. The ruling came just hours before an end-of-day deadline for election officials to finalize the November ballot for printing. 

The Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly easily passed the amendment along party lines, which would re-establish rules for drawing district lines — and could allow Democrats to later tilt the full congressional delegation in the party’s favor. 

Alabama: The federal government filed a motion on Wednesday seeking summary judgment in its lawsuit against the state, alleging that the violence in Alabama prisons violates inmates’ Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. 

Kentucky: Lawmakers may consider legislation to require law enforcement officers to get a warrant before searching Flock camera data in the future. 

Washington: More than 20,000 ballots in the state’s primary election last month were rejected because they came in too late, thousands more than in 2024. 

Indiana: The state Supreme Court is stopping ballot distribution in six counties while it considers a legal challenge in a Republican state Senate primary race that was decided by three votes. 

Idaho: As the deadline to print ballots looms, the state Supreme Court will decide whether officials’ descriptions of a ballot measure on abortion rights is misleading. 

Colorado: Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser sued the Trump administration over its attempt to prohibit states from using federal Medicaid funds for gender-affirming healthcare. 

New Mexico: A coalition of climate groups and residents is asking state leaders — and gubernatorial nominees — to consider buying a stake in electric company PNM, whose proposed sale to private equity firm Blackstone has prompted protests. 

Nevada: Concerned that state agencies have relied on artificial intelligence without much oversight, lawmakers are proposing basic standards on how the technology is used by state and local government entities. 

North Dakota: Legislators rejected a push to ban the use of nondisclosure agreements between government entities and developers of data centers and other industrial projects.

Virginia: Cumberland County residents are split on a proposed gas plant, which would be the second largest gas plant in the nation if it is approved. 

New Jersey: State prisons now require people to upload a passport or driver’s license to message incarcerated loved ones, prompting criticism that the new policy is burdensome and opens up digital privacy risks. 

Missouri: A Republican legislative candidate in Joplin plotted to plant cocaine and Adderall on his primary opponent in an effort to derail her campaign, federal prosecutors allege.

Randy Capello of Donaldsonville, Louisiana, sits in on a state Department of Environmental Quality hearing Sept. 1 about the air quality permit for the Hyundai steel mill planned in Ascension Parish. (Photo by Elise Plunk/Louisiana Illuminator) 

It was the first and only public hearing the state department has planned for the facility’s air pollution permit. The hearing provided residents, elected officials, industry representatives, and local business owners a chance to share their thoughts on whether the state should approve the project based on its pollution impact. Every seat in the gymnasium was filled. 

The 1,700-acre steel manufacturing site was announced in March 2025 as a proposed $5.8 billion investment that could bring 1,300 jobs to the region and produce 2.7 million metric tons of steel for Hyundai and Kia automobile plants in the U.S. and other automakers.

Along with job promises, the facility will produce more than 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases and release 196 tons of particulate matter and 1,760 pounds of lead into the air each year, according to its air pollution permit application with the state.

Read more from Louisiana Illuminator.

President Donald Trump said earlier this year he’d “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections” this fall, declining to rule out sending the National Guard or federal law enforcement officers to polling locations throughout the country.

Those comments came a few months after Trump casually and briefly mentioned canceling the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. 

Any such actions would lie outside the bounds of presidential power and the law, according to experts interviewed by States Newsroom. 

Nonetheless, one Democratic U.S. senator is sending letters to numerous members of the administration asking for commitments troops won’t be sent to the polls, and state officials are readying plans to keep voting secure.

“The president can say whatever he wants, but his powers are extraordinarily limited in this way,” said Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat.

With two months until voting ends on Nov. 3, the administration’s only publicly disclosed plan to monitor elections is a decades-old Justice Department program that sends federal workers throughout the country.

The Department of Justice declined an interview request from States Newsroom, writing in a statement the administration hopes “to have the largest monitoring effort in the Department’s history,” totaling around 1,000 observers.

DOJ election observers have been dispatched to monitor primary elections throughout the year without much fanfare, though Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon said in late August that their behavior in his state was “a bit aggressive.” 

“It just was irregular, and I have asked the attorney general to start looking into, you know, kind of the nature of the visits and all that sort of stuff,” Gordon said, according to reporting from WyoFile, an independent nonprofit newsroom.

More from the D.C. Bureau:

Rhode Island’s tally of rabid animals has climbed well above its five-year average, Rhode Island Current reports, after two rabid raccoons were found about 5 miles apart in densely populated neighborhoods. 

Three people and two dogs were treated for possible exposure.

The pair of raccoons brings the total number of rabid animals identified in Rhode Island this year to 34, according to the Department of Health. Between 2021 and 2025, the state averaged 24 recorded rabid animals.

Cases have thus far included 20 raccoons, 10 bats, one cat, one coyote, one skunk and one woodchuck.

State Veterinarian Scott Marshall said there’s no clear explanation for the increase, though he suspects this summer’s drought could be playing a role.

“It’s possible that the dry conditions might have led to scarcity of resources, particularly water,” Marshall said. “There’s all these resources that are here for them, which just makes it easy for them to live here versus the middle of the woods.”

Left untreated, rabies is nearly always fatal, with a mortality rate of around 100%. Prompt post-exposure treatment, however, virtually eliminates the risk of death. About 60,000 people receive post-exposure treatment each year in the United States, according to the U.S. National Park Service.