By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 9/1/2026
Category: New York Courts / Government Accountability / Infrastructure / Environment
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
A federal judge has stopped New York from enforcing a landmark law designed to make major fossil-fuel companies pay $75 billion toward the state’s mounting climate costs.
Chief U.S. District Judge Brenda K. Sannes ruled Monday that the Climate Change Superfund Act is preempted by federal law. The decision blocks a program that was expected to collect $3 billion a year for 25 years beginning in 2028.
The money was intended for infrastructure New Yorkers already pay to protect, including roads, transit systems, water systems, buildings and sewer upgrades threatened by extreme weather.
Sannes found that the federal Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency primary authority over interstate air pollution and does not permit New York to create what the court viewed as its own emissions-compensation system.
The ruling also concluded that the state law intruded on federal foreign-affairs powers because it could impose liability tied to production and refining activity outside the United States.
The court did not resolve every constitutional claim raised by the challengers. Its preemption ruling was enough to invalidate the law and prevent enforcement.
The law, signed in December 2024, assigned costs according to companies’ estimated greenhouse-gas emissions from 2000 through 2018. State lawmakers said the program would move climate-adaptation expenses away from taxpayers and onto companies responsible for large volumes of historic emissions.
A coalition of states and business groups challenged the statute. The U.S. Department of Justice supported the challenge and said the law interfered with national energy, economic and environmental policy.
Supporters warned that without the fund, New Yorkers will remain responsible for billions of dollars in resilience work. NYPIRG said the decision leaves taxpayers facing costs created by climate damage and urged the state to appeal.
New York officials were reviewing the decision. Any appeal would go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The immediate result is clear: the state cannot begin collecting money under the program while the judgment stands. What remains unanswered is how New York will finance the infrastructure work the law was created to support.
Sources
Reuters: New York cannot enforce $75 billion climate superfund law
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