Gov. Kathy Hochul said New York state is “looking” at its “options of appeal” after a federal judge struck down the state’s Climate Change Superfund Act saying it is preempted by the federal government’s Clean Air Act.
Hochul signed the Climate Change Superfund Act into law in 2024.
The judge’s decision means New York cannot impose strict liability on energy companies for their alleged contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions.
This is according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Democratic New York state Sen. Liz Krueger initially sponsored the bill in the state Legislature.
Krueger said she was “expecting it to go this way.”
“We feel very strongly the attorney general needs to appeal this to a higher court, and we believe that we will win,” said Krueger.
The law uses a polluter-pays model requiring major fossil fuel companies to pay $75 billion collectively over 25 years.
“Guess what? If we don’t win, there’s about $75 billion of planned climate resilience funding that we the taxpayers of New York, will have to pay instead of the major fossil fuel polluters who caused this damage,” said Krueger.
Some New York business leaders tell Spectrum News 1 that this law was an overreach on the state’s part, including The Business Council of New York State, which was a plaintiff in this case.
“I think this was an attempt by the state, as they say, ‘Have their cake and eat it too,’ to impose these assessments and they thought, in a way, it would not impact consumers of fuels,” said Ken Pokalsky, vice president of government affairs at The Business Council of New York State.
“A massive overreach,” said Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United. “Again, I really feel bad for the attorney general who is asked to defend the indefensible here.”
Environmental advocates share that while this is the decision in this case, there are multiple legal challenges that still have to be decided.
“There’s another case in the Southern District of New York brought by the Trump administration,” said Jon Binder, executive director of the Model Climate Laws Initiative for Environmental Advocates NY. “This case was in the northern district of New York brought by a bunch of red states and business groups. There’s also a case in Vermont that’s pending. So, we still have to see what happens in those cases. There’s lots of additional legal steps.”
The Trump administration is also reacting to this decision. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the U.S. Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division said in part:
“The Department of Justice is delivering on President Trump’s order to protect American energy from state overreach. New York’s law would have expropriated $75 billion from energy companies around the world during an energy emergency and in direct defiance of American foreign policy and federal law.”
Trump signed an executive order in April 2025 in what his administration said is “an order to protect American energy from state overreach.”
New York’s legal challenges are closely being watched by some leaders in New Jersey. There’s a similar measure that stalled in the New Jersey statehouse last session. In a statement to Spectrum News 1, New Jersey Civil Justice Institute President Elissa Frank said, “A federal judge just saved New Yorkers from paying billions more for energy. Unfortunately, New Jersey is considering a similar policy that will drive up fuel and electricity costs by almost $700 per household each year.