Large fossil fuel companies will now have to hand over punitive reparations to help New York fight the effects of “climate change” under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D).
AP reports a state fund for infrastructure projects meant to repair or avoid future damage from climate change has been set up to benefit from the payments.
Lawmakers approved the bill earlier this year to force big oil and gas companies to contribute to the cost of repairs after extreme weather events critics attribute directly to fossil fuel companies and their wares.
“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,” said state Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat who sponsored the bill.
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“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,” Krueger further warned.
The biggest emitters of greenhouse gases between 2000 and 2018 would be subjected to the fines imposed after New York State became the first state in the nation earlier this year to ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in new buildings, mandating a shift to renewable energy and electricity as the state’s power grid runs short of capacity.
The AP report notes the new law won’t start penalizing companies immediately.
Instead, the state must come up with rules on how to identify responsible parties, notify companies of the fines and create a system to determine which infrastructure projects will be paid for by the fund. Legal challenges are expected.
As Breitbart News reported, Vermont became the first state to initiate such punitive taxes on fossil fuel companies back in May.
The Vermont law will create the Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program at the Agency of Natural Resources, which will collect the money from the companies and allocate it to “climate change adaptive or resilient infrastructure projects in the state.”
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