A federal judge has struck down New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, ruling that it “conflicts with” federal authority.
The legislation would have required fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of adapting to climate change, but it operates in an area of the law “in which the federal interest is so dominant that it cannot be enforced,” according to the judge’s ruling.
Issued Monday, the ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in February 2025 by attorneys general from 22 Republican-led states. Fossil fuel companies and trade groups such as the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce also backed the suit.
The law aimed to force fossil fuel companies to pay $75 billion over 25 years. That sum is only a fraction of the more than $500 billion that the state projects it will need to prepare for climate-related risks, including hurricanes, storms and extreme heat—all of which have been intensified by climate change.
Fossil fuel companies “knew the damage they were causing; they continued to do it,” said state Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who co-sponsored the initial legislation. “They didn’t do anything about it, and so when we passed the law, the purpose was to ensure that these corporations pay for some of the costs of the damage that they caused.”
