By Jonathan Allen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York state will fine fossil fuel companies a total of $75 billion over the next 25 years to compensate for climate damage, under a bill Governor Kathy Hochul signed on Thursday.
The law aims to shift some of the climate change recovery and adaptation costs from individual taxpayers to oil, gas and coal companies that are liable under the law. The money raised will go toward mitigating the effects of climate change, including retrofitting roads, transit, water and sewer systems, buildings and other infrastructure.
“New York has fired a shot that will be heard around the world: the companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable,” said New York Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat who co-sponsored the bill , in a statement.
Fossil fuel companies will be fined based on the amount of greenhouse gases they released into the atmosphere between 2000 and 2018, and will be placed in a Climate Superfund from 2028. The fine will apply to any company that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation determines is responsible for more than 1 billion tons of global greenhouse gas emissions.
New York becomes the second state to pass such a law, after Vermont passed its own version this summer. The laws are modeled after existing state and federal super fund laws that require polluters to pay for toxic waste cleanup.
Repairing damage and adapting to extreme weather events caused by climate change will cost New York more than $500 billion by 2050, Krueger said in her statement. Major oil companies have made more than $1 trillion in profits as of January 2021 and have known since the 1970s that the extraction and burning of fossil fuels contributes to climate change, she said.
Energy companies are expected to legally challenge the new law, arguing it is undermined by federal law that regulates energy companies and polluters.
