Big fossil fuel companies will have to pay a fee to help New York combat the effects of climate change, according to a new bill.
New York state will fine fossil fuel companies a total of $75 billion over the next 25 years to pay for climate damage, under a bill Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law Thursday.
The law aims to transfer part of the costs of recovery and adaptation to climate change from individual taxpayers to the oil, gas and coal companies that, according to the law, are responsible.
The money raised will go toward mitigating the effects of climate change, including adapting roads, transit systems, water and sewage, buildings and other infrastructure.
“New York has fired a starting shot that will be heard around the world: the companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable,” New York Democratic Senator Liz Krueger, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement.
Fossil fuel companies will be fined based on the amount of greenhouse gases they emitted into the atmosphere between 2000 and 2018, which will be deposited into a Climate Superfund starting in 2028.
It will apply to any company that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation determines is responsible for more than 1 billion tons of global greenhouse gas emissions.
New York becomes the second state to pass such a law, after Vermont passed its own version in the summer. The laws are modeled after state and federal Superfund laws, which force polluters to pay to clean up toxic waste.
Repairing damage and adapting to extreme weather events caused by climate change will cost New York more than $500 billion by 2050, Krueger said in his statement.
Big Oil has made more than $1 trillion in profits since January 2021 and has known since at least the 1970s that extracting and burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, he added.
Energy companies are expected to file legal challenges against the new law, arguing that there is a federal law that regulates energy companies and polluters.