1 month ago
24
New York|Hochul Signs Law That Penalizes Companies for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/nyregion/hochul-climate-change-superfund-law.html
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
The measure will seek to raise funds to pay for some of the damage caused by extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent because of the combustion of fossil fuels.
Dec. 26, 2024Updated 12:49 p.m. ET
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York on Thursday signed a law that requires companies that are big fossil fuel polluters to help pay to repair damage caused by extreme weather, which is becoming more common because of greenhouse gas emissions.
The legislation, called the Climate Change Superfund Act, mandates that the companies responsible for the bulk of carbon emissions buildup between 2000 and 2024 pay about $3 billion each year for 25 years.
“With nearly every record rainfall, heat wave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment,” Governor Hochul said.
The law was modeled on the original Superfund law, which was established in 1980 and requires companies to pay for the cleanup of toxic waste wrought by incidents like oil and chemical spills.
New York’s new law focuses on pollution produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, which results in the warming of the atmosphere, causing extreme weather, like floods and storms, to be more frequent, experts say.
The idea is to take some of the burden off taxpayers, who now are on the hook for financing much of the cleanup and mitigation efforts after weather disasters. The law takes particular aim at the oil and gas companies that produced more than one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions globally over the last 24 years.
