How is New York State Ignoring Donald Trump’s Plan to Roll Back Climate Action?

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed landmark climate legislation last week, demonstrating how the state can continue to hold polluters accountable even as President-elect Donald Trump rolls back environmental protections.

New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act would require the largest multinational oil and gas companies to contribute funds that will be used for infrastructure projects to protect New Yorkers from increasingly dangerous climate disasters such as storms and rising sea levels. I demand it.

Trump will soon return to office and is expected to dismantle existing climate policies and tear down the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), having publicly criticized clean energy and federal environmental regulations during his campaign. So for at least the next four years, Americans will have to rely on local and state efforts like these to address the pollution from fossil fuels that causes climate change.

“New York has fired a shot that will reverberate around the world,” state Senator Liz Krueger said in a statement after Hochul signed the Climate Change Superfund Act. “The companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable.”

Kruger’s office projects the law will generate $75 billion in revenue over the next 25 years. But in the near future, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will first have to propose guidelines for how the fund will operate. This includes rules about who must pay for the funds, how the state raises the money, and what types of infrastructure projects the funds will support. The law would apply to fossil fuel companies, which have historically been responsible for more than 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. And at least 35% of the fund’s benefits must go to “underserved” communities.

The plan is loosely modeled after state and federal laws that have been in place for decades to hold companies accountable for toxic waste sites they leave behind. But rather than using the money to clean up hazardous materials at old industrial sites, New York’s new law would fund resiliency projects like upgrading storm drainage systems.

“New York taxpayers have borne the financial burden of 100% of the climate costs. Now Big Oil will have to pay for much of the damage they have caused,” Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), said in a press release.

According to NYPIRG, the Climate Change Superfund Act is expected to reduce New Yorkers’ future tax burden by $3 billion annually. Kreuger’s office said extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change are expected to cost New York $500 billion in preparedness and recovery efforts by 2050.

Joe Biden has set a goal to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030 compared to 2005 pollution levels as part of the country’s commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. He also signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive spending package that allocates $369 billion for climate action and clean energy technologies.

Trump, on the other hand, has said he would pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement again (it briefly pulled out during Biden’s first term before recommitting the United States to the agreement). The president-elect also said he would withdraw all unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act. He rolled back more than 100 environmental regulations during his last presidency, and said his run for the Environmental Protection Agency would once again ensure “swift deregulation decisions” at the agency.

Still, state laws could make up some lost ground in the fight against climate change. Of course, New York’s Climate Superfund Act would have to overcome all legal challenges. But this isn’t the first time the state has laid out ambitious environmental plans in the face of hostility to Trump’s climate measures. In 2019, New York State passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. This puts the state on a path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. But since then, progress has been slow.

New York’s latest response to impending environmental deregulation is just one part of a larger trend that marked the first Trump presidency and is poised to become part of the second. Earlier this year, Vermont passed its own climate Superfund law. Similar bills have been introduced in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and in Congress, according to the nonprofit Food & Water Watch.