NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Signs Law Forcing Energy Companies to Fund “Climate Change Superfund”
New York is spending billions on illegal immigrants, and is facing a $16 billion deficit in 2028. So the NY Governor and legislature are trying to force fossil fuel companies to pay $3 billion each year for 25 years based on pseudoscience and virtue-signalling.
The cost of illegal immigration in New York State is substantial and multifaceted, with estimates varying based on different factors and timeframes.
New York City alone is budgeting $12 billion between now and the end of Fiscal Year 2025 to provide for 173,000 recent illegal migrants. As of November 30, 2024, New York City had recorded expenditures of $1.47 billion in Fiscal Year 2023 and $3.75 billion in Fiscal Year 2024 for asylum seekers.
At the regional level, the cost associated being a “Sanctuary State” is also extremely high.
The conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform’s March study found New Yorkers will pay $9.9 billion all told for various federal, state and local government programs that serve more than 1 million illegal immigrants and asylum-seeking migrants in the Empire State.
New York taxpayers will shell out $4.65 billion for education-related expenses, $3.5 billion for health care and welfare expenditures including food assistance programs, and $1.75 billion for costs related to immigration-related law enforcement such as caring for unaccompanied minors, the report breakdown states.
It also estimates that the border crisis is costing US taxpayers more than $150 billion annually — a 30% jump since their 2017 study. The estimate was offset by around $31 billion in taxes collected from illegal aliens.
Monies that once went to road improvements and other infrastructure projects has clearly been diverted, and the coffers are coming up empty. The Division of the Budget projects a growing general fund deficit that could reach $7.25 billion in three years. The Citizens Budget Commission estimates a structural deficit that could exceed $16 billion in the 2028 fiscal year.
Faced with these issues, what is a governor to do? Kathy Hochul decided the best play was to blend climate cultism and virtue-signalling to target energy companies, confiscating billions to play for the essential infrastructure projects.
The legislation, called the Climate Change Superfund Act, mandates that the companies responsible for the bulk of carbon emissions buildup between 2000 and 2024 pay about $3 billion each year for 25 years.
“With nearly every record rainfall, heat wave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment,” Governor Hochul said.
…New York’s new law focuses on pollution produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, which results in the warming of the atmosphere, causing extreme weather, like floods and storms, to be more frequent, experts say.
For me, the name “Climate Change Superfund Act” is pretentious and misleading. Carbon dioxide is a life-essential gas, and we have arguably been in a carbon dioxide famine. The original Superfund was an important piece of legislation that helped support the remediation of lands that had been seriously contaminated by truly dangerous substances.
Beyond this insult to serious legislation, here is what the monies pilfered from legitimate American businesses are going to fund:
- Restoring and safeguarding coastal wetlands
- Enhancing infrastructure such as roads and bridges
- Improving stormwater drainage systems
- Elevating and retrofitting buildings
- Supporting recovery efforts from natural disasters
At one time, all of the above endeavors would be funded by state and local taxes, or tolls. However, to continue both the climate crisis farce and the warm welcome to illegal immigrants, sacrifices must be made.
So, in New York, brace yourself for California-style gas prices. It will be one of the many unintended consequences of being a “Sanctuary State”, despite assurances by “experts” consumers won’t be impacted.
"The top Big Oil companies will be required to pay a combined total of $75 billion over 25 years. These costs won’t fall back on consumers, according to numerous economists, including Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and an analysis from the Institute for Policy… https://t.co/2AQoFVOpPE
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) December 26, 2024
I would like to think 2025 will be the year the American energy industry begins pushing back on the climate cultists. There are signs.
“This type of legislation represents nothing more than a punitive new fee on American energy, and we are evaluating our options moving forward,” the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s top lobbying group, said in a statement.
This legislation is going to be argued in court, and the evidence for “climate crisis” becomes less persuasive with time. As Hot Air’s Beege Welborn notes, “discovery is going to be fun“.
Not only is New York State – and Vermont, with their similar May 2024 bill – going to have to directly tie the fossil fuel industry (that still drives some 81% of our power generations) to be the cause of “climate change,” they are also going to have to prove that the fossil fuel industry is responsible for extreme events caused by “climate change,” a charge the data doesn’t begin to support.
They are going to have to prove events are “more extreme” and what do they mean by that? If they really just mean “more expensive” because more people/structures/infrastructure are impacted than was there 20 years ago, how are the fossil fuel companies responsible for population growth and sprawl?
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I would love to see oil companies grow a pair and just stop selling gasoline in NY until they repeal this.
Why stop there? They should stop selling heating oil in NY too. Make the leftists choose between their cult and freezing their nutz.
They would choose freezing, because only the plebs will freeze. The elites will always get all the energy they need, and they control how the votes are counted.
What Hochul is doing will raise the price of oil. Asphalt comes from oil. Roads are paved with asphalt. There are 250,000 miles of paved roads in New York. Smart thinking Hochul.
I would love to see the oil companies simply refuse to pay, and sue New York State if it tries to punish them.
“The top Big Oil companies will be required to pay a combined total of $75 billion over 25 years. These costs won’t fall back on consumers, according to numerous economists, including Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and an analysis from the Institute for Policy…”
All business costs are passed to consumers, plus a profit margin. How much will a gallon of gas costed be raised to cover this?
Gee whillikers…a multi-billion dollar slush fund run by Democrats.
What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
At last! Someone sees the true purpose of the superfund. Hochul is a NY Democrat, which is even more corrupt than the usual breed of Democrat. The money in that fund will go into the pockets of her relatives, accomplices and “contributors” and do absolutely nothing about the alleged problem of climate change. And it will all be legal.
Literally, the first thing I did was type ctrl+F “slush” to see if anyone said it first and was not disappointed.
The Democratic party is basically just a crime syndicate for the B- students to game the system for their enrichment.
This all such BS. Even if New York State could prove that the fossil fuels are damaging the environment, it is not the fossil fuel producers who are using the fuels, but the businesses and consumers.
Red states need to be prepared for refugee migrants (i.e. US citizens) from New York State. I am one from 11 years ago.
>>NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Signs Law Forcing Energy Companies to Fund “Climate Change Superfund”<<
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You got that wrong. The energy companies won't be paying the billions into any "climate change superfund". It'll be the rate payers that will be forced to pay the money in terms of increased rates and/or climate change assessment fees added to their monthly bills.
>>Beyond this insult to serious legislation, here is what the monies pilfered from legitimate American businesses are going to fund:
• Restoring and safeguarding coastal wetlands
• Enhancing infrastructure such as roads and bridges
• Improving stormwater drainage systems
• Elevating and retrofitting buildings
• Supporting recovery efforts from natural disasters<<
You really believe that? How much do you want to bet that once the billions start flowing into the NY state coffers they'll find a way to divert a significant portion, if not all of it, to the general fund and spend it on items totally unrelated to so-called climate change. The thieves in Albany just won't be able to keep their hands off it. Guaranteed.
No heating oil for NY, nor a drip of gasoline.
Let them freeze their constituents.
Also, no electricity from outside NY.
Are the oil companies not going to fight this?
Really?
Of course they will fight this.
Double NY’s fuel prices to fund the war chest.
Even if the companies fight this nonsense in court, they could well lose. Juries are mad for anything green. Look at the record. They believe what this stupid woman says. Judges are little better (see Montana).
I’m glad that Governor Hochul is putting her money where her mouth is with this climate change nonsense. She thinks that Big Oil is just sitting on a huge pile of money and that she – meaning the state – should just have it because they want it.
Just as the Governor proclaimed the NYC subways safe at the same moment some poor woman was burning to death at the hand of an illegal alien (no apologies for the nomenclature will be forthcoming – that is what he is) she is similarly under the psychotic delusion that this bill will solve the nonexistent problem of climate change.
Not only will it not solve the non-problem, this could well push the state over the edge. It has been well-neigh impossible to do business in NY for some time now and who needs this bull____? As John Galt might suggest, citizens may well shrug.
Albany aside, NYC is a key malignancy upon the Republic. They produce nothing; what they consume comes to them from the very people that they detest. If those who supply NYC were to decide to boycott shipping goods to the city, they wouldn’t last a week.
Being a big believer in the republican form of government, I say let this dingbat do her worst. There are two ways people vote – with a ballot and with their feet. Go long on U-Haul folks because that giant sucking sound you’ll be hearing is anyone center and right of center getting out of town.
Hochul & Henchpersons (more ecumenical) seem to think that passing a heavy tax automatically creates money for the state. They don’t think about that nasty little factor called reality, namely that companies will fold and stop doing business in the state. Hochul suffers from the Mandarin syndrome from the last dynasty to rule China, namely that just by uttering a command it will be done and the earth will tremble. Well, Hock-up, consider this law will go through enough litigation while energy companies plot their exit. When your puppet courts finally rule against them, they will have pulled out the rug from under New York.
On the afternoon of Jan. 20, 2025, the oil and gas companies should issue a joint statement that due to the NYS carbon tax making the state unprofitable, they are stopping the delivery of all petroleum products to the state. Including heating oil.
If people freeze to death – and many will – that is on Comrade Hochul.
Turn off natural gas as well and tell the political windbags to go power some windmills.
Anybody who thinks the energy companies won’t get the shakedown money from their customers isn’t paying attention. Gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel, and other petroleum products are about to get even more expensive in New York.
.
NY residents need to procure millions of gallons of oil for the torches before no fuel is available.
Well I see that LI is still stealth censoring comments for whatever reason. I thought they’d given up that practice. But evidently not. You see all your comments you’ve made if your logged in but you don’t see all of them if your logged out. 🙁
Above comment visible. Don’t know about others.
They are “held” temporarily if you use naughty words, but almost always released after a human review as long as they were used in an intellectually-adult fashion. So the solution is, just be patient.
Interestingly, the list apparently contains either cr^ ap or st^ up^id, because I’m in the same boat right now.
Are you experiencing more deletions on weekends, were you guilty of rejecting DeSantis in the past?
The oil companies can easily argue that carbon is released by the consumer and not the producer. Therefore all the state of New York has to do to collect that $3 billion a year is to add a surcharge of 60 cents a gallon at the pump. If consumers start to purchase less as a result, then keep raising the surcharge. Next thing you know NYS becomes just like California with respect to gas prices.
And the taxpayers will pay for this in higher fuel bills. NY will surpass California in highest fuel prices.
SING IT!!!
“I-I-I-I-I-I hate New York!!”
What ho! Con Ed.
No. All the ho’s are at Princeton, taking their new courses.
This won’t survive court challenge, right?
Its based upon “estimated” impact and other difficult to prove theories.
This kind of insane tactic is the last phase of a bankrupt state. NY is losing citizens faster than CA and the rich are leaving first. The tax base is shrinking so desperate schemes like this pop up. School teachers and garbage collectors making $100,000 a year are insane. No state can survive in that environment.
NY taxes the sale of fuel. They are essentially skimming off of this “climate killer”. They are in cahoots.
If New York wants to implement regressive taxes they should do so. Pretending that making energy companies pay something doesn’t negatively affect poor people the most is just being evil liars.
Amen.
“Senator Liz Krueger: … New Yorkers will save $75 billion.”
And now, as a service for our intellectually impaired viewers, here is Garrett Morris, headmaster of the New York School For The Hard of Thinking:
“You’re so stupid you’ll swallow any crap I spit out. After all, you were stupid enough to vote for me, weren’t you?”
Can’t figure out what made this woman qualified to be a public servant in the first place. Other than first woman governor of NY, has she any accomplishments? She fell into most everything. With people like this in the lead, no wonder why things are much worse in NY and elsewhere than would be otherwise.
‘For tonight’s performance, the part of Willie Brown will be played by Mario Cuomo.”
She was in right place at right time when cuomo hurt somebody’s feelz.
This is wish casting by the woke climate cult.
Magical thinking inevitably ends in witch trials.
One issue for the Climate Inquisition even if they can prove their allegations that fossil fuels directly do X harm to the environment (frankly I don’t see how) is gonna be the concept of proportional liability.
How much harm is the responsibility of the Oil company v the wholesaler v the retail gas station v the retail consumer who actually uses the product? For that matter the State itself uses fossil fuels in Police Vehicles and other State owned fleets. So does the National Guard. There’s probably State mandated requirements to have backup diesel generators for hospitals. Is the legislature gonna ban the use of these ‘harmful’ products? Nope it is a shakedown and a clumsy one.
“Democrats For Higher Electricity Rates.”
Hochul’s office and governor’s residence and the New York government and offices ALL need to be completely cut off from oil and gas and any petroleum products. This is actually doable. They need to be stopped from using any petroleum, any petroleum products, any electricity generated by petroleum or petroleum products or machines built using petroleum or petroleum products …
Hochul and the New York state legislature are enemies of civil society.
Clearly an ex-post facto law.
“… companies responsible for the bulk of carbon emissions buildup between 2000 and 2024 pay about $3 billion each year for 25 years.”
Never mind that the “carbon emissions buildup” has a strongly positive external value, having slightly pulled planet earth back from the brink of CO2 starvation. Positive or negative, this is past behavior.
Are states allowed to pass ex post facto laws? This would seem to be a violation of the “ordered liberty” that SCOTUS held to be “incorporated” under the “privileges or immunities” clause of the 14th Amendment, and/or it’s “due process” clause.
I don’t know whether the court has ever addressed this, but freedom from ex post facto laws would seem to be a clear requirement of due process, AND an established immunity under our federal Constitution.
Emily Litella moment: neeever mind…
Doing a little searching, the case is much simpler. States are directly barred from passing ex post facto laws by Article I, Section 10, Clause 1:
“No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.”
This law will not stand.
Trump needs an AG that will do what the dems have been doing since at least oblunder.
Sue the big liberal outfits, cut a massive deal that pays multiple millions and make the liberal outfits make the checks payable to conservative NGO’s.
Then get the kickbacks from the conservative NGO’s and fund PACs to fight the hochul’s and other ugly liberals holding office.
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