Judge blocks New York’s ‘climate Superfund’ law as other states watch closely

Filed 47m ago · Via Stateline · The Buffoon Desk

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Canon in D Major

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Artuš Scheiner · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A federal judge ruled that New York cannot enforce its 2024 'climate Superfund' law, which sought to charge fossil fuel companies $75 billion over 25 years for climate-related costs. Chief Judge Brenda Sannes found the state law preempted by the federal Clean Air Act, siding with fossil fuel companies and attorneys general from 22 Republican-led states who brought the suit.

West Virginia's attorney general celebrated the ruling as a win against states 'trying to balance their budgets on the backs of' fossil fuel workers, while environmental advocates urged New York to appeal, noting the ruling doesn't bind other states. New York was the second state after Vermont to pass such a law, and a similar Vermont case remains pending.

At least a dozen other states have proposed comparable bills, none of which have advanced, with lawmakers reportedly watching the New York and Vermont litigation before proceeding.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A federal court finding that only the federal government may address a crisis the federal government has shown little appetite for addressing is a tidy trick: responsibility gets shuffled upward until it evaporates entirely. The fossil fuel industry didn't need to win the argument on the merits — it just needed a court willing to say someone else's job.

Source: Read the original at Stateline → Scored: Canon in D Major · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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