New Yorkers understand that climate change is an existential threat. And they also understand that there is no time to waste when it comes to the kind of bold, game changing actions that will be required to mitigate its most harmful effects. That is why New York’s governor and Legislature passed groundbreaking legislation — the Climate Change Superfund Act — to hold the largest polluters accountable for the impacts they have on our health and wellbeing.
But now, extremists in Congress are working hand in hand with Washington lobbyists in an attempt to block New York State’s landmark law. New Yorkers should not allow Washington extremists to tell us what we can and cannot do to protect our environment and address the harmful effects of pollution before time runs out.
In 2024, state lawmakers passed the legislation to make polluters pay their fair share and contribute $3 billion per year to cover some of the cost of protecting ourselves from future extreme weather events. These funds will help us prepare for and respond to the challenges of hurricanes, floods, fire, and rising temperatures — from improving and repairing roads, bridges, buildings, drainage, and more.
It’s a proactive approach that shifts at least some of the burden from taxpayers onto those most responsible for the problem: massive and wildly profitable oil and gas giants, like ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco.
For New York residents and businesses, this isn’t just an abstract concept. Extreme weather events lead to higher taxes, insurance rates, and utility bills due to damaged buildings and infrastructure.
New Yorkers already know how hard it is to cover their utility bills, which have spiked drastically over the past year, and how expensive it is to repeatedly repair damage to their homes from flood after flood. Our climate Superfund law mitigates these financial pressures, providing New Yorkers a small buffer against the economic fallout.
Some estimates put the price of protecting New York from the impacts of climate change as high as $52 billion to protect New York Harbor, $75-$100 billion to protect Long Island, and $55 billion for the rest of the state. The state comptroller predicted that more than half of local governments’ costs will be attributable to the climate crisis.
Until now, these costs have fallen on taxpayers, even though Big Oil — which has seen booming business (even bigger now due to the Iran crisis) and record profits — has accelerated the pace of climate change and has never been held accountable.
Importantly, the climate Superfund law doesn’t make Big Oil pay for all of the costs — just a small fraction. But this is a significant improvement from forcing taxpayers to front the entire bill. The math is simple: If polluters don’t pay, you and other taxpayers will.
Republicans and Democrats alike need to recognize that climate change is here, and it is not going away. Protecting our state while lowering costs for taxpayers should not be a controversial idea. And most importantly — New York should be able to set its own laws without interference from politicians beholden to the fossil fuel industry.
After Superstorm Sandy, we saw Republicans and Democrats come together to deliver critically-needed disaster assistance to our state. It was a bipartisan team effort that could not lose.
We need this strong bipartisan voice again.
We need the entire New York congressional delegation to protect our state’s rights, protect our taxpayers, protect our communities, and protect our climate Superfund law.
Goldman represents parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan in Congress. Suozzi represents parts of Long Island and Queens in Congress.