New York Governor Kathy Hochul Historic climate legislation signed Legislation passed last week shows how states can hold polluters accountable even as President-elect Donald Trump rolls back environmental protections.
New York's Climate Change Superfund Act The largest multinational oil and gas companies will be required to contribute to a fund that will be used for infrastructure projects to protect New Yorkers from dangerous climate disasters like hurricanes and sea level rise.
“New York has fired a shot that will be heard around the world.”
Trump will soon step back into office and is Hope to dismantle current climate policies And Abolish the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)to be openly humiliated Clean energy and federal environmental regulations on the campaign trail. So for at least the next four years, Americans will have to rely on such local and state efforts to combat the fossil fuel pollution that causes climate change.
“New York has fired a shot that will be heard around the world: the companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable,” state Senator Liz Krueger said in a statement. statement Hochul signed the Climate Change Superfund Act into law.
Krueger's office expects the legislation to generate $75 billion over the next 25 years. But in the immediate future, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) must first propose guidelines for how the fund will work. It includes rules about who gets paid into the fund, how the state collects the money, and what types of infrastructure projects the fund will support. Law This would apply to fossil fuel companies historically responsible for more than 1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. And at least 35 percent of the fund's profits must reach “disadvantaged” communities.
The plan is loosely modeled after State And federal Laws that have existed for decades to hold companies accountable toxic waste site They get left behind. But instead of directing funds toward cleaning up hazardous substances at old industrial sites, New York's new law will fund resiliency projects like upgrading storm drainage systems.
“The financial burden for climate costs was 100 percent on New York taxpayers. Now Big Oil will pay for most of the losses they helped cause, Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), said in a statement. Press release,
According to NYPIRG, the Climate Change Superfund Act is expected to reduce New Yorkers' future tax burden by $3 billion each year. Kreuger's office says extreme weather events caused by climate change are expected to cost New York half a trillion dollars in preparedness and recovery efforts by 2050.
Joe Biden set Target To cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 pollution levels as part of the country's commitment to the Paris climate agreement. He also signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. huge expense package that has been set aside $369 billion For climate action and clean energy technologies.
Trump, on the other hand, says he will Pull America out of the Paris Agreement again (Which he did briefly during his first term before Biden recommitted the US to the agreement). The newly elected President has also said that he will do so Cancel any unspent funds From Inflation Reduction Act. HisGovernment withdrew more than 100 environmental rules when he was last president, and says so His selection for Environmental Protection Agency Will make sure this time”rapid regulatory decisions“Once again at the agency.
Still, state laws could make up some of the ground lost in the fight against climate change. New York's Climate Superfund Act must survive somehow legal challengesAbsolutely. But this is not the first time the state has made ambitious environmental plans in the face of hostility toward Trump's climate action. In 2019, New York State Passed its Climate Leadership and Community Protection ActThis put the state in a situation path However, it aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. progress has been slow Since then.
New York's latest answer to the environmental deregulation looming on the horizon is just one part of a larger trend that marked Trump's first presidency, and is set to be part of the second. earlier this year, Vermont passed It has its own Climate Superfund law. A similar law has also been brought California, maryland, Massachusetts, new Jerseyand in Congress, According to the nonprofit Food and Water Watch,