Judge: NYS can't charge companies for costs of climate change

A federal judge in Syracuse has struck down New York's landmark climate-Superfund law, saying the state overstepped federal authority in seeking to force companies to pay billions of dollars to cover damage caused by climate change.

U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes ruled the federal Clean Air Act superseded New York’s "Climate Change Superfund Act," which was enacted in 2024 to force fossil-fuel companies to pay for damages from superstorms, infrastructure improvements and other remediation linked to climate change.

"The court finds that the Climate Act is ‘simply beyond the limits of state law,’ " Sannes wrote. "It is precisely because the Climate Act operates within an area of law in which the federal interest is so dominant that it cannot be enforced."

She also added: "The Climate Act is an unusual and sweeping statute, designed to address the effects of climate change — a uniquely international problem of national concern."

In doing so, the judge sided with 22 Republican-led states, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, that filed suit to block the New York law. President Donald Trump’s administration also had weighed in, opposing the state law.

West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, called the New York law a "money grab." Among other things, he’d argued that New York was seeking to punish fossil-fuel companies that had followed federal emissions laws and that the state law would shift more energy production overseas.

"This is a major victory in the fight against liberal states, trying to balance their budgets on the backs of our hard-working men and women in the coal, oil and gas industries," McCuskey said.

New York and Vermont were the first two states to pass what’s called "climate Superfund" legislation, aiming to require the world’s biggest polluters to pay billions of dollars for their part in climate change. Other states are looking to pass similar legislation.

New York’s law would force fossil fuel companies to collectively pay the state $75 billion over 25 years.

When signing the legislation into law in 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul said it would "put the responsibility on polluting entities to pay for the damages they have knowingly caused, so that everyday New Yorkers are not left with the bill."

Hochul, a Democrat, is up for reelection this year, challenged by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican.

The state senator who shepherded the legislation into law predicted Sannes’ decision would be overturned by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

"I have always said that there would be many rounds of legal wrangling before the Climate Change Superfund could begin to provide relief for New Yorkers," Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said in a statement.

"For regular New Yorkers, these legal distinctions are distractions from the fundamental reality they are faced with every day: that they are on the hook for over half a trillion dollars in adaptation costs because of climate damage caused by the world’s biggest multinational oil and gas companies," Krueger added. "New Yorkers simply cannot afford to be left holding the bag for someone else’s mess."

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy