WRGB Studios-Schenectady, NY — A U.S. District Court Judge blocked New York’s 2024 Climate Change Superfund Act this week, saying the State could not impose financial penalties to fossil fuel companies for greenhouse gas emissions.
The New York Climate Change Superfund Act passed in the final hours of the 2024 legislative session, and was signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in the final days of 2024.
A legal challenge ensued in 2025 by a variety of groups and states, with a the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York ruling the Clean Air Act preempts the New York Climate Change Superfund Act.
“The Department of Justice is delivering on President Trump’s order to protect American energy from state overreach,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division in a release. “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. We will continue to fight for affordable, reliable energy for all Americans.”
The New York Climate Change Superfund Act would have required fossil fuel companies who have contributed significantly to greenhouse gas emissions to collectively pay New York State $75 billion over the next 25 years.
The funds would then go towards projects to “avoid, moderate, repair, or adapt to negative impacts caused by climate change, and to assist communities, households, and businesses in preparing for future climate change-driven disruptions.”
The Business Council of NYS has been opposed to the New York Climate Change Superfund Act since its inception, arguing the penalties would be passed down to consumers.
“This is a $75 billion total, $4 billion a year tax on fuel,” Ken Pokalsky, The Business Council of NYS VP of Governmental Affairs, told CBS6. “That’s more than double what we currently are at, almost two and a half times our current fuel specific taxes in New York State, and you know in our view this looked like a tax. It was going to be implemented like a tax, and we thought we expect the companies would treat it as a tax, and that means it’s going to be almost fully directly passed through to business and residential customers using natural gas and petroleum products in New York State. We thought that was just a bad idea, certainly at the wrong time.”
He says the legislature deciding on $75 billion was “totally arbitrary”, and that he hopes the state comes up with a different figure to address climate resiliency.
On Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters she was looking at options for an appeal, something echoed by the Senate Sponsor of the bill Liz Krueger (D).
“Based on some of the judge’s comments, we sort of expected this to happen, and frankly, this litigation is only the opening inning in what we expected would be a multi-court process to win,” Krueger says. “The truth is, we need to now appeal this decision to the next court because if we give up this fight, New Yorkers alone would be losing $75 billion dollars in funding for pollution damage, which we will have to pay out of our own pockets as taxpayers. So when people talk about out-of-control affordability crises and the cost of climate change, this is an attempt, a big one, to say those who are responsible should help to pick up the costs of solving the problem.”
Stay tuned as this story will be updated.