WASHINGTON (TNND) — A federal judge has struck down a New York law designed to penalize fossil fuel companies for climate change.
Chief U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes for the Northern District of New York, an Obama appointee, ruled that the state’s Climate Change Superfund Act is preempted by federal statutes, The Hill reported.
“The Climate Act is an unusual and sweeping statute, designed to address the effects of climate change — a ‘uniquely international problem of national concern,’” Sannes wrote in her ruling.
The judge said that the statute is “beyond the limits of state law,” adding, “it is precisely because the Climate Act operates within an area of law ‘in which the federal interest is so dominant’ that it cannot be enforced.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed the Climate Change Superfund Act in 2024, which sought to punish companies for emissions by requiring them to pay a total of $3 billion annually for 25 years.
The law is modeled after federal Superfund laws, which require companies to pay for pollution they cause.
Fossil fuel trade associations and Republican-led states challenged the New York law in court, arguing that it was an attempt to reshape the U.S.’s energy industry.
New York argued that its law seeks to hold companies accountable for harm against the state as a result of climate change’s impacts on rising temperatures and extreme weather.
The Trump administration sued New York to try to block the law, as well as Vermont, which has a similar statute.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for damages caused by polluters,” Hochul’s senior communications adviser on energy and environment, Ken Lovett, told The Hill.
“We are reviewing the decision to determine possible next steps,” he added.
The Justice Department’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson said in a statement following the ruling, “New York’s law would have expropriated $75 billion from energy companies around the world during an energy emergency and in direct defiance of American foreign policy and federal law.”
“This is a major victory in the fight against liberal states, trying to balance their budgets on the backs of our hard-working men and women in the coal, oil and gas industries,” West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey (R) said in a statement.
“West Virginians can’t afford more liberal policies that jack up electricity and transportation costs. Thankfully, New York politicians can’t put their hands in West Virginia families’ pocketbooks now.”