Senate passes chapter amendment to create Climate Superfund assessment on fossil-fuel producers

The New York State Senate on Jan. 20 passed a chapter amendment to the Environmental Conservation Law, commonly discussed as the Climate Superfund Act (Senate print 8 24), approving an assessment on certain fossil-fuel producers to pay for climate-adaptive infrastructure and other costs.

The measure passed on the floor after extended questioning of sponsor Senator Krueger. The tally reported on the floor was 36 yeas and 23 nays.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Krueger, told colleagues the measure would require “companies [to] pay into the fund based on the amount of historic greenhouse gas emissions attributable to greenhouse-gas producing fossil fuels, which they are responsible for extracting and refining,” and said the assessment is meant to make large producers pay a share of climate damage costs that taxpayers currently bear. Krueger said the assessment was modeled on economic reports and that agency regulations and models developed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) would determine specific obligations.

Why it matters

Supporters said the fund is intended to pay for infrastructure, resiliency and community grants to address storms, sea-level rise and other climate-related damage already being experienced in New York. Opponents argued the assessment would raise energy costs for consumers and risk substantial litigation over due-process and liability questions.

Key points from the floor debate

- Scope and calculati…