On Thursday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, signed the Climate Change Superfund Act into law. Empire State officials believe the law will pour $75 billion over the next 25 years into state coffers to fund critical infrastructure projects that lawmakers say will be needed due to the impacts of climate change, which climate zealots claim is due to emissions from the use of fossil fuels.
New York joins Vermont, which passed their own version of a superfund in May, in expecting big oil companies to pay costs brought on by extreme weather events. The fund is supposed to pay for such projects as coastal wetlands restoration, stormwater system upgrades, and energy-efficient public buildings. The law is expected to be challenged in court by fossil-fuel interests.
Climate-zealot Propaganda
Hochul parroted climate zealots’ talking points in her announcement:
With nearly every record rainfall, heatwave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment.
Establishing the Climate Superfund is the latest example of my administration taking action to hold polluters responsible for the damage done to our environment and requiring major investments in infrastructure and other projects critical to protecting our communities and economy.
State Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, agreed:
The Climate Change Superfund Act is now law, and New York has fired a shot that will be heard round the world: the companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable. Too often over the last decade, courts have dismissed lawsuits against the oil and gas industry by saying that the issue of climate culpability should be decided by legislatures.
Well, the Legislature of the State of New York — the 10th largest economy in the world — has accepted the invitation, and I hope we have made ourselves very clear: the planet’s largest climate polluters bear a unique responsibility for creating the climate crisis, and they must pay their fair share to help regular New Yorkers deal with the consequences.
Implementation of the new law could take a while. State bureaucrats will need to study greenhouse-gas emissions from the year 2000 through 2018. According to the law, “no reasonable corporate actor could have failed to anticipate regulatory action to address its impact.”
It’s difficult to see just how an oil company could have foreseen such a kneecap reaction to a much-hyped but still unproven climate “crisis” by a state legislature. What should they have done? Stop selling consumers a necessary product?
It’s little more than punishment for the sin of making money.
New Yorkers Will Pay
“This type of legislation represents nothing more than a punitive new fee on American energy, and we are evaluating our options moving forward,” noted the American Petroleum Institute, a leading lobbyist for the oil industry.
Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United, a consumer group, said that the legislation neglects to consider the costs to New Yorkers.
Governor Hochul’s decision to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act law is a misguided move that does a disservice to all New Yorkers, who already pay enough to fund the shortsighted measures linked to [previous ‘climate-change’ legislation]. This legislation, while aimed to address climate change, fails to consider practical realities faced by residents across the state.
New Yorkers will STILL rely on fossil fuels to get to work and heat their homes, and in upstate New York, having the ability to do just that, with heating oil, natural gas, and propane, is the difference between life and death.
Hochul and the Democrat-led New York Legislature want the citizens of the state to think they’re sticking it to Big Oil by fining them in order to fight climate change. But those citizens fail to see how the oil companies will pay for it. New York consumers will pay the cost in the form of higher prices at the pump and for home heating.
In essence, all Hochul has signed is a climate tax on New York residents.
