Under a bill signed into law Thursday by Governor Kathy Hochul, the state of New York will impose a $75 billion charge on fossil fuel industries over the next 25 years to compensate them for climate damage.
“With nearly every record rainfall, heatwave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment,” Governor Hochul said.
The goal of the law is to transfer part of the expenses associated with climate change adaptation and recovery from individual taxpayers to the coal, oil, and gas businesses that the law believes responsible. The funds will be used to adapt buildings, transportation, water and sewage systems, roadways and other infrastructure in order to lessen the effects of climate change.
“New York has fired a shot that will be heard round the world: The companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable,” New York Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said in a statement.
A Climate Superfund will be established in 2028 to receive fines from fossil fuel firms based on the quantity of greenhouse gases they put into the atmosphere between 2000 and 2018. Any business that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation finds to be accountable for more than 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide will be covered.
This summer, Vermont approved a similar bill making New York the second state to do so. The regulations are based on federal and state superfund statutes that mandate that polluters pay for the cleanup of toxic waste.
By 2050, it would cost New York over $500 billion to repair damage and prepare for climate-related extreme weather, Krueger said in her statement. According to her, major oil firms have known since at least the 1970s that the production and burning of fossil fuels contributes to climate change yet they have made more than $1 trillion in profits since January 2021.
It is anticipated that energy firms would dispute the new law in court claiming that federal law that regulates polluters and energy companies eliminates it. This move marks a very significant step and gives a better solution to tackle with climate change.
