The New York State Assembly passed the Climate Change Superfund Act June 8 to require fossil fuel companies to pay for project costs associated with climate change mitigation. Awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul's signature, the bill also passed in early May in the state Senate and creates a 25-year fund to be financed by those firms.
New York is the second state to create a climate superfund after Vermont, which passed its law on May 31 and also awaits a gubernatorial signature, according to Vermont Public. Other states considering similar superfund bills include California, Massachusetts and Maryland.
“This is peanuts to these companies,” Anne Rabe, environmental policy director for New York Public Interest Research Group, told Spectrum News. “It requires big oil payers to pay $3 billion a year for 25 years in a row, that’s $75 billion for climate damage repair, resilience and protection.”
NYPIRG, which supported the bill’s passage, says one-third of the $3 billion in anticipated annual funding will be earmarked for disadvantaged communities that suffer the worst impacts due to climate change.
"The historic legislative approval of the Climate Change Superfund Act is a huge step toward ensuring that 'big oil' contributes to the mounting costs of climate catastrophe," NYPIRG told Common Dreams, a nonprofit news organization.
But targeted companies are set to respond, said Bruce White, attorney at Barnes & Thornburg LLP in Chicago. “It is anticipated that the fossil fuel industry will vigorously oppose these climate Superfund laws as unconstitutional retroactive taxes," he said, comparing them to arguments by municipalities in climate lawsuits now in pending in state and federal courts.
"The industry also will likely assert that insofar as these state laws seek to regulate interstate GHG emissions, they are preempted by the federal Clean Air Act and beyond the scope of an individual State's authority." White said the fossil fuel sector is also set to argue that liability "is being selectively imposed.”
The New York superfund legislation passed in the last week of its legislative session.
