NY Climate Change Superfund Act: making polluters pay for the damage they've caused
The Climate Change Superfund, or Senate Bill S2129A is designed to create a 25-year fund of $3 billion annually, financed by big fossil fuel corporations, for climate mitigation, adaptation, and resiliency projects. One-third is reserved for communities most impacted by the climate crisis.
After years of slow action, the New York State Assembly joined the State Senate in passing the Climate Change Superfund Act in 2024 — intended to make the most polluting corporations in NY pay for the harm they’ve caused. New York follows Vermont, which became the first US state to pass a similar Superfund a month prior. The dominoes are falling: Maryland, Massachusetts, and California have similar proposals.
If the governor does not sign the bill within 30 days, it effectively "dies" and must be reintroduced in the next legislative session. As of August 2024, it was not signed into law by Governor Hochul. That likely means we have to start all over in January 2025.
If the governor ever does sign it into law, we can expect that oil and gas companies are going to fight back with every trick they can find, such as claiming these are retroactive taxes, or that it is not nuanced enough to match any individual company’s specific impact. According to the National Law Review:
“Paralleling the arguments made in the pending state climate cases, the [fossil fuel 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 individual States’ authority. The industry is also expected to argue that the liability is being selectively imposed and disproportionate to the harm allegedly caused by each entity (if the individual nexus to such harm can be shown at all).” — Bruce White, National Law Review
