New York to charge fossil fuel companies for damage from climate change under new law

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Spectrum News NY1/AP

PUBLISHED 5:54 PM ET Dec. 26, 2024


Large fossil fuel companies would have to pay fees to help New York fight the effects of climate change under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The new law requires companies responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a state fund for infrastructure projects meant to repair or avoid future damage from climate change.

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 and resiliency projects such as coastal wetland restoration and upgrades to roads, bridges and water drainage systems.

“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. “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 said.

The biggest emitters of greenhouse gases between 2000 and 2018 would be subjected to the fines.

Read more: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2024/12/26/hochul-signs-new-york-climate-change-superfund-act

[NJCher]

1. I'll be watching

The actions that come out of this with great joy. 🤩

[thatdemguy]

2. And most companies will just raise prices to cover the costs.

Well we will have to see how they do this. Will be it be a % of the business they do in the state? Will it be a flat fee per gallon or cubic foot of gas? Most companies will just raise the price of what they sell in the state, they will just see it as a cost of doing business in the state and that cost will be passed on to consumers.

I would also be interested in a few years to see where the money goes.

[mdbl]

4. My first thought too

Does the legislation ensure they won't pass this on to consumers? It should be on the backs of the corporation and it's shareholders. After all, the corporation is a person, according the the SCROTUS.

[thatdemguy]

5. There is no way to put anything

That would prevent it from being passed on. And if they tried to do any price control there is no law that says exxon or any other company has to do business in New York.

So try to prevent it from being passed on is impossible with out saying something like gas can not be higher than say 2 cents more than the average price in states XYZ. That is a price control and would not work.

Also lets be honest its not going be be more than a cent or two. I just looked it up, 5.7 billion gallons of gasoline are used a year in NY. At 1 cent per gallon that 57 million dollars. This does not include diesel, heating oil, nat gas propane etc. So lets take a guess and say gas is 1/3 of it, thats 150 million. New yorks gdp is 2.3 trillion, 150 million is a rounding error at that level. They are expected to have a 2.4 billion deficit in 2024, and 7 billion next year.

Any money they take in will just be used to help the state budget. Yes the state budget is now used to do some of what they want to do here. ( Fix the CC damage ). But it will just be seen as a another tax increase.

[nmmi]

3. And ...

Last edited Fri Dec 27, 2024, 10:43 AM - Edit history (1)

The 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.

. . . New York's governor signed the measure months after Vermont put a similar law in place.

The article about the Vermont law also has no specifics, other than "polluter pays"

And yes, most of it will ultimately paid for by fossil-fuel consumers. The costs have to be paid somehow. Otherwise it's paid for out of general tax funds, which at the state level are mostly regressive. And by all of us through climate-related damages we suffer either directly or by higher insurance premiums.

By making high-greenhouse-gas products more expensive, we discourage the dick-size competition of super-sized MAGA trucks, bitcoin mining, and we encourage some who run their A/C when the temperature is half a degree above perfect to try supplementing with far-lower-energy-consuming fans first like people who give a shit do. And to wear a damn sweater indoors in the winter (I had a roommate who expected that the temperature would be kept high enough to be comfortable sitting around in a tee shirt. That arrangement didn't last long. If that makes me an asshole, I am honored to be so-called)

The asshole companies that shove the energy-intensive AI down our throats when we do a simple Google (or Bing etc.) search will also have to pay more, as they should.

Some of the fees can and should be used to help lower income households with their heating bills for example.

Also, the more greenhouse-gas-intensive producer companies will have a competitive disadvantage compared to less polluting ones, so their executive bonuses and their shareholders will be affected too.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

6. Time to go national.

Especially states with damage to food production. Every state needs to learn about the cost of doing nothing but trust the fossil fuel industry.

[Martin68]

7. That will be decided in the courts.