Twenty-two states sued New York on February 6, contending that a new law forcing a small group of major energy producers to pay $75 billion into a fund to cover climate change damage is unconstitutional, Report informs via AP.
The lawsuit, filed in Albany, lists state Attorney General Letitia James and other officials as defendants.
According to a statement, West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey led the coalition of states against New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, which requires payments for damage allegedly done from 2000 to 2018.
The law requires major fossil fuel companies to pay into the fund over the next quarter-century based on their past gas emissions.
“This lawsuit is to ensure that these misguided policies, being forced from one state onto the entire nation, will not lead America into the doldrums of an energy crisis, allowing China, India and Russia to overtake our energy independence,” McCuskey said in a release.
“This law is unconstitutional, and I am proud to lead this coalition of attorneys general and brave private energy companies and industry groups in our fight to protect against this overreach,” McCuskey added. “If we allow New York to get away with this, it will only be a matter of time before other states follow suit – wrecking our nation’s power grid.”
“We look forward to defending this landmark legislation in court and defeating Big Oil once again,” Paul DeMichele, a spokesperson for Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, said in an email.
It called the law “an ugly example of the chaos that can result when States overreach.”
