Maine lawmakers Tuesday took a possible step toward establishing a program to recoup money from large, corporate polluters to pay for the impacts of climate change.

The House of Representatives passed a bill that would study how much greenhouse gas emissions have cost the state in a 75-72 vote that fell largely along party lines. Two Democrats, Tiffany Roberts of South Berwick and Holly Sargent of York, joined with Republicans in opposition.

The Senate passed the bill 19-13 earlier in the week with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed.

The bill, LD 1870, sponsored by Sen. Stacy Brenner, D-Scarborough, started out as a proposal for a so-called “climate superfund” that would collect fees from groups that extract fossil fuels and refine crude oil and whose activities are found to contribute to certain levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The money would be used to fund climate change adaptation projects.

The version that was voted on this week, however, was revised to a proposal for a study of the cost to the state of greenhouse gas emissions from 1995 to 2024. The information is set to be submitted to lawmakers in a report due by Jan. 1, 2028.

Supporters say the revised version represents an important first step toward holding polluters accountable with less potential for legal ramifications. Laws that are similar to Brenner’s original proposal are currently being challenged with lawsuits from businesses and the Trump administration in Vermont and New York.

In the Vermont case, the U.S. Justice Department has argued that the state law is unconstitutional and represents an unlawful attempt to regulate emissions that cross state lines — which it says is the job of the federal, not state, government, the New York Times reported this week.

Sen. Denise Tepler, D-Topsham, who chairs the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, said Maryland has taken a more incremental approach to establishing a climate superfund program. Lawmakers there passed a bill to assess the cost of climate change to infrastructure, and Tepler suggested Maine should do the same thing.

“LD 1870 will allow Maine to assess the true cost to our state of climate pollution as we watch the lawsuits unfold in New York and Vermont,” Tepler said on the Senate floor Monday.

The proposal still needs to go through second votes in both chambers before it can be sent to Gov. Janet Mills for her approval. It also comes with a $600,000 price tag and will have to compete with other bills for funding.

A spokesperson for Mills said Tuesday that the governor supports reducing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the effects of climate change, and that she will review the bill if it reaches her desk.

The measure drew close to 45 minutes of debate in the House on Tuesday. Democrats argued the study is an important step toward mitigating damages from climate change impacts. They pointed to a string of severe winter storms that hit the state in late 2023 and early 2024.

The money for the study would be easily surpassed by the dollars that could be recovered with the establishment of a climate superfund program, they said.

Republicans noted opposition from business groups to a climate superfund, said the study was unnecessary and cited the legal challenges that have arisen in other states.

“This amendment looks like a retreat, but it is not,” said Rep. Mike Soboleski, R-Phillips. “It is a strategic delay that sets the stage for the same policy fights, only now they will fall on the next Legislature and the next administration.”