Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) — New York state is fining fossil fuel companies a total of $75 billion over the next 25 years. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill, called the Climate Change Superfund Act, into law last week. Representatives claim the monies will be used to reinvest in mitigating further environmental harm — including improving transit systems, sewage and water, roadways, protecting major harbors and upgrading infrastructure.“Well, they certainly have a lot of costs going forward to adapt to climate change,” said environmental lawyer Alan Knauf from Knauf Shaw LLP. Knauf said New York is pointing the blame for climate change on carbon dioxide emissions, thereby holding oil companies liable.“It is a pretty, let’s say, radical, I guess it is, approach to this to really go right in the face of the oil companies and say, ‘Hey, you guys got to pay,'” he said. On the fairness of this measure, Knauf said that’s debatable. “I certainly see the point of view of the state is ‘You sold this product, you knew what was going to happen, or you should have known,'” he said. “I think a lot of the oil companies did know, but the very least they should have figured it out, and you’re just liable for the consequences.”State representatives claim major companies like Exxon knew as early as the 1970s about the possible devastation fossil fuels could unleash on the planet. But who is ultimately going to pay this $75 billion? While state representatives claim the costs will not fall onto the consumer, Ethan Wade from Brighton Securities said it will be all the rest of us paying. “It’s another example of New York state making it more difficult for businesses to operate here within the state,” he said. He said if you make doing business more challenging, that then hits our pocketbooks.”Exxon or Chevron or these large energy companies will not just pay this money freely,” said Wade. “They will not say, ‘Well, we’ll accept less profit and we’ll give New York state some money to put in their coffers.’ They will not.”Some interest groups have claimed big oil has raked in nearly $1 trillion in profits the past few years. So why not just dip into that to help pay this $75 billion? Wade said it’s not that easy. “Because (the companies) have shareholders to answer to,” said Wade. “They have a business to operate. They have profit margins that they will continue to look to expand. We could pick any year and say that they’ve made all these profits. We can also pick 2020 and say that they lost all this money during that year during the pandemic.”Knauf said the legislation is largely retroactive, and Wade said this is not the end.“Ultimately, are they going to fight this? They will certainly have lawsuits that are going to arise from this,” said Wade. “There’s probably more industries that possibly could have hit in there, so there’s going to be a lot of lawsuits that will come from this. The energy companies will fight it. They’re not just going to hand over hun
Sab. Gen 11th, 2025
