Superfund Tax Is Back, and Chemical Industry Is Seeing Red

njspotlightnews.org Pictured: Jimmy Carter signs the Superfund Act on December 11, 1980 (Source: AP/Dennis Cook)
Representative Jim Florio 2nd from right in front row
Facing a new tax to fund a toxic waste cleanup program, the American chemical industry spent a near-record sum lobbying the federal government last year.

Chemical companies and their primary trade group, the American Chemistry Council, which represents the industry before Congress and federal departments, spent $65.73 million on lobbying in 2023, nearly matching the $66.68 million the industry spent in 2022, according to the nonpartisan political watchdog group OpenSecrets.

Those two years of hefty spending — the highest peak in chemical lobbying pressure since 2014, when Congress took up legislation to rewrite federal chemical law — coincide with the creation of a new tax to pay for the Superfund program. That federal effort is of particular importance to New Jersey, home to 115 sites within the program, the most of any state.