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New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a bill to fine gas and oil companies $75 billion for damaging the climate. From 2028, companies will start paying for the amount of greenhouse gases they produced between 2000 and 2018. It applies to large oil and gas companies that the state of New York believes have produced over 1 billion tons of greenhouse gases.

The amount will be spent towards climate change mitigation, including building new and adapting existing infrastructure, including roads, buildings, transit systems, and water and wastewater systems, to climate change.

Announcing the measure, Gov. Hochul said New Yorkers are “burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment.”

She claimed that the “Climate Superfund” would hold polluters responsible for their actions by requiring them to invest in infrastructure and communities.

Democrat Senator Liz Krueger, who sponsored the bill alongside Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, said it would ensure major polluters “must pay their fair share to help regular New Yorkers deal with the consequences.” Sen. Krueger also noted that courts have previously avoided ruling on climate change matters, instead referring them to elected lawmakers.

“Well, the Legislature of the State of New York – the 10th largest economy in the world – has accepted the invitation, and I hope we have made ourselves very clear: the planet’s largest climate polluters bear a unique responsibility for creating the climate crisis, and they must pay their fair share to help regular New Yorkers deal with the consequences.”

She claimed that, by 2050, New Yorkers will be required to pay more than half a trillion dollars in “repairing from and preparing for extreme weather caused by climate change.” She estimated that each household would fork about $65,000, excluding the cost of “disruption, injury, and death” caused by climate change.

While the amount is intended to shift climate change recovery and adaptation costs from individual taxpayers to big fossil fuel companies, it only increases the taxpayers’ burden as the companies will pass the expense to consumers.

Additionally, it increases the cost of doing business, turning away potential investment from Democrat-run states, which pass similar measures. Recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that Red states, with fewer regulations and taxes, far outdid Blue states on job creation. 

New York, the second to pass such a measure countrywide after Vermont, was also among the bottom ten states on job creation. Vermont, which passed a similar measure this summer, was among the bottom five states on creation.

Earlier this year, New York passed another climate-related law, the first of its kind nationwide, banning fossil fuels from new buildings. It requires all new buildings less than seven stories to adopt all-electric heating and cooking by 2026, while taller buildings must comply by 2029. 

However, it exempts restaurants, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and carwashes. Nevertheless, New York’s rural communities, which largely depend on fossil fuels for heating and cooking, will be especially affected.