Climate change advocates in New York state on Thursday warned workers, workers, He celebrated a “huge victory” for young people and the climate. .
After years of advocacy, Hochul signs the Climate Superfund Act, delivering what Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), calls “a welcome holiday gift to New York taxpayers.” Ta.
The law is modeled after the state and federal Superfund Act of 1980, which requires companies to fund the cleanup of toxic waste they generate, and since the law’s inception, carbon emissions It would also require the largest fossil fuel companies, which are responsible for most of the By the end of the century, we will be paying about $3 billion a year for 25 years.
This money, which would otherwise have to be paid by taxpayers, many of whom are already suffering from extreme weather events caused by fossil fuel emissions, will be used to restore and protect wetlands, upgrade public infrastructure, improve stormwater drainage systems, and provide public The money will be used to pay bills. For climate disaster recovery efforts.
Theodore Moore, executive director of the Alliance for Greater New York, said the law would provide “75 billion dollars to communities hardest hit by toxic air pollution, record-breaking storms, and dangerous heat waves. We will reinvest the dollars.”
Lee Wasserman, executive director of the Rockefeller Family Foundation, which lobbied for the new law, told the New York Times: “There is nothing fairer than making climate polluters pay.”
The bill’s sponsor, New York state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-28), told the Times that New York state will cost $5 trillion to repair extreme weather disasters and climate change by 2050. He said it is predicted that
“That’s more than $65,000 per household, on top of the disruption, injuries and deaths the climate crisis is causing in every corner of our state,” Krueger said.
State Rep. Farrah Sfurand Forrest (D-57) said the new law takes a “they broke it, they bought it” approach to climate disasters and fossil fuel emissions.
New York state taxpayers will fund $2.2 billion in climate change-related infrastructure repairs and upgrades in 2024, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates $52 billion will be needed to protect New York Harbor .
“In addition, $75 billion to $100 billion is needed to protect Long Island and $55 billion to combat climate change across the rest of the state,” NYPIRG said. “State Comptroller Projects More than Half of Local Government Costs Will Be Attributable to the Climate Crisis.”
If you look at this industry and the $1 trillion in profits it has made over the past four years, who knows that the emissions of the world’s biggest polluters have caused $5.4 trillion in climate damage over the past 26 years? There’s no reason.
“Our future is on fire, and so is New York, while the fossil fuel industry brings in trillions of dollars in profits every year,” said Keanu Arpels-Josiah, organizer of Fridays for Future NYC. spoke. “The time has come for them to pay their fair share in New York. As young people across the state have advocated every year, signing the full Climate Superfund Act is an important step toward that. Let this be the beginning of the crisis: this change on climate change by this governor.”
NYPIRG stressed that no costs would be passed on to consumers.
“Experts say Big Oil’s payments reflect past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, so oil companies will have to treat the payments as a one-time fixed cost,” the group said. said.
New York is the second state to pass a law guaranteeing that large polluters will be compensated for climate change damages. One year after a federal state of emergency was declared across Vermont after a storm dumped two months’ worth of rain in just two days and caused historic and devastating flooding in Vermont, A similar law was passed.
Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media, said the Climate Superfund Act “opens the door for more states to follow suit.”
Similar bills have been proposed in states such as Maryland and New Jersey.
Krueger told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that “it would be better if this was all done at the federal level,” but author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben said Thursday that As I wrote, Hochul’s signing of the Climate Superfund Act answers that question. : “How do you get the world’s most important fight going when the world’s most important office is about to be filled by a climate change denier and a hopeless Congress is in session? About moving serious legislation forward? ”
“One of the key answers is that we’re going to go state by state, city by city, and make gains everywhere we can,” he said, less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. McKibben said.
“And now other states may join in. The billions of dollars start piling up. More or less, this is how states slowly and very quickly dismantled the tobacco industry,” he wrote. . “So I really appreciate the people who have put their lives on the line these past few days and the people who have worked hard for years to get us here. This is Trump. It may be a sign of the progress of the times.”
