Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that the state is reviewing its options after a federal judge in Syracuse struck down New York\u2019s Climate Change Superfund Act.<\/p>\n
The law, which passed in 2024, sought to collect $75 billion from fossil fuel and other companies, both foreign and domestic, that are believed to be responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n
A coalition of mostly Republican-led states and business groups sued to block the law. And eventually, the Department of Justice joined the effort, arguing that the law was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
Federal District Court Judge Brenda Sannes did not go that far but found that the act is \u201csimply beyond the limits of state law.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, the DOJ said it acted to \u201cprotect American energy from state overreach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court held that federal law preempts New York\u2019s attempt to regulate global environmental concerns, marking a significant step in advancing President Trump\u2019s energy agenda and lowering energy prices for Americans,\u201d said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. \u201cWe will continue to fight to uphold the rule of law, unleash American energy, and protect our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge also found the claims the state was making were similar to claims that New York City made in its lawsuit against oil companies in 2018. It was later dismissed by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n
But Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, one of the bill\u2019s original sponsors, disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate that Judge Sannes failed to recognize the clear distinction between a tort lawsuit \u2026 and a state legislature exercising its constitutional powers to raise revenues and protect its citizens,\u201d Krueger said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Other supporters of the law, such as the New York Public Interest Research Group, are urging the state to appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this ruling stands, then New Yorkers or New York taxpayers are out somewhere in the neighborhood of $75 billion that they’re going to get either in increased taxes or reduced services, or both,\u201d said Blair Horner, senior policy adviser for NYPIRG. \u201cAnd so that is the stark reality of this court decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
A similar law in Vermont is also facing a court challenge. Horner said both could end up before the Second Circuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that the state is reviewing its options after a federal judge in Syracuse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-335265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}