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A coalition of climate organizations held a rally to deliver more than 125,000 petitions calling for Governor Hochul to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act into lawGina Randazzo\/ZUMA Press Wire<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tGet your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n On Monday, an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled that New York State could not enforce its 2024 Climate Change Superfund Act, a landmark law<\/a> that would have charged fossil fuel companies $75 billion over 25 years for climate damages from cumulative greenhouse gas emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a 63-page opinion<\/a>, Chief Judge Brenda Sannes of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York sided with 22 Republican state attorneys general, as well as industry groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Petroleum Institute, and National Mining Association, saying the state\u2019s \u201csprawling\u201d superfund act was preempted by the federal Clean Air Act and outside the jurisdiction of New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Climate Act is an unusual and sweeping statute, designed to address the effects of climate change\u2013a \u2018uniquely international problem of national concern\u2019,\u201d Sannes wrote. \u201cThus, the Court finds the Climate Act is \u2018simply beyond the limits of state law.\u2019\u201d Her decision follows a July hearing<\/a> where Sannes sharply questioned whether she was constrained by an earlier 2021 decision in which New York sued five fossil fuel groups for climate damages<\/a> from climate change, such as sea level rise. Her August 31 opinion relied heavily on this case.\u00a0<\/p>\n New York\u2019s climate superfund legislation, passed in 2024, required fossil fuel companies to pay for climate change adaptive infrastructure projects, like upgrades to roads, transit systems, the electric grid, stormwater drainage, and sewage treatment plants, as well as design solutions to mitigate extreme heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n Climate litigation experts criticized the legal rationale behind Sannes\u2019 decision. \u201cThe [2021] Second Circuit NYC decision is not binding precedent in this case,\u201d said Patrick Parenteau<\/a>, a law professor and Climate Policy Fellow at Vermont Law School. \u201cIt has been severely criticized by other federal and state courts. Judge Sannes should not feel bound by it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Trump administration, which over the last year and a half has enacted its deregulatory \u201cenergy dominance<\/a>\u201d agenda and has rolled back a host of environmental rules, like the 2009 endangerment finding<\/a>, commended the ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Justice is delivering on President Trump\u2019s order to protect American energy from state overreach,\u201d said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson in a Department of Justice press release<\/a>. \u201cNew York\u2019s 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Gustafson is head of the recently rebranded<\/a> Energy and Natural Resources Division, and under his watch, the DOJ filed a similar lawsuit last year supporting attorneys general in New York as well as Vermont<\/a>, which passed the very first<\/a> state climate superfund legislation in May 2024. Vermont was first<\/a> sued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute in December of that year.<\/p>\n In 2026, 13 other states have considered passing similar<\/a> \u201cpolluters pay\u201d laws. Despite wide public support, organizers in blue states considering their own bills are seeing opposition<\/a> from state Republicans, business groups, and trade associations. New Jersey Senator Michael Testa released a statement<\/a> saying his state \u201cshould pay close attention\u201d to New York\u2019s ruling. \u201cOur state\u2019s similar bill should go no further. It\u2019s a waste of time and resources.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time of publication, New York\u2019s Attorney General Letitia James has not yet filed an appeal over Sannes\u2019 ruling. Separately, it is unclear when and how Vermont\u2019s case will be decided, but both decisions may inform how other states draft and pass future<\/a> climate superfund laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n Environmental advocates stress that New York\u2019s ruling \u201cdoesn\u2019t bind\u201d other states from passing their own superfund laws, and that the burning of fossil fuels will continue to cause mounting climate damages. \u201cThe floods will still come, roads will still wash out, and communities will still need billions to protect themselves,\u201d said Make Polluters Pay<\/a> Communications Director Cassidy DiPaola in an emailed press release. \u201cThose costs don\u2019t disappear just because fossil fuel companies don\u2019t want to pay them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coalition of climate organizations held a rally to deliver more than 125,000 petitions calling for Governor Hochul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-335677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335677","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=335677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}