Amid Smoke-Filled Climate Disaster, NYS Senate Passes Bill to Make Corporate Polluters Pay!

ALBANY, NY (06/07/2023) (readMedia)-- Today, the Senate voted to pass the Climate Change Superfund Act (S.2129A Krueger/A.3351A Dinowitz) and make corporate climate polluters pay. Now advocates are calling on the Assembly to address the current climate disaster and follow the Senate's lead.

"With the air outside blanketed in poisonous smoke, the Senate met the moment and passed the Climate Change Superfund Act. Now the Assembly must acknowledge the climate emergency and do the same. The dangerous air outside – a direct result of climate change – will stick many New Yorkers with thousands in health care costs, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Unless the Assembly acts, New Yorkers will be stuck holding the bag for $100 Billion in just the next ten years.

Thank you, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, Bill Sponsor Liz Krueger, and the Senators who voted for the legislation. Now the Assembly must follow your lead and stand with New Yorkers over the Big Oil industry that caused this disaster," said Blair Horner, Executive Director of NYPIRG.

Last week, the Buffalo News published an editorial in favor of the Climate Change Superfund Act. And on Monday, Assembly Member Michaelle Solages wrote an op-ed in favor of the bill, highlighting the disparate and unjust impacts of climate change on Black, Latinx, Asian, and low-income communities:

"We're all impacted by climate change, but Black, Latino, Asian, and low-income communities bear the brunt of it. Natural disasters aren't just the weather themselves - they're worsened by social, political, and economic stressors. Low-income communities experience greater challenges evacuating due to the cost of transportation and relocation. But when people stay, they experience increased health risks including contaminated water and interrupted access to medical care and food. On top of that, because of the increased risk of asthma, heart disease, and other chronic health problems that low-income and communities of color experience (also because of other environmental injustice), these communities are especially vulnerable to storm hazards.

And of course, after the flood, cleanup is expensive and leads to increased debt, partly because people in poverty are less likely to have flood insurance. According to the Urban Institute, after four years, a medium-sized disaster causes a 31-point decline in credit scores for people living in communities of color, whereas people living in white communities only experienced a 4-point decline."

Background

The Climate Change Superfund Act is modeled on the existing toxics superfund law (which deals with land and drinking water contamination) that makes corporate climate polluters financially responsible for the environmental damages that they have caused. These costs wouldn't fall back on consumers, according to an analysis from the think tank Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU Law.

According to a new study in One Earth, the world's 21 top polluting companies are responsible for $5.4 trillion in climate damages over a period of 26 years. Just this year alone in New York State, taxpayers have already been asked to pay more than $800 Million so far for projects related to climate damages and resilience. On top of that, according to the State Comptroller's office, the City planned to spend another $829 million on projects fully intended for climate change adaptation and resilience in FY 2023. The City also planned to spend an additional $1.3 billion on projects that are partially for these purposes.

Meanwhile, while the bills pile up for taxpayers, the industry responsible for this mess is raking in cash. The top Big Oil companies in the U.S. are on track for a second consecutive year of record profits, and the industry globally is performing much better than expected. 2022 was a record profit year for the industry, with the top companies' combined profits reaching an astounding $376 billion. Those record profits allowed them to deliver unprecedented returns to shareholders while doing little to address the climate crisis they knew was coming, but did all they could to undermine climate action. Starting in the 1970s, scientists working for Exxon made "remarkably accurate projections of just how much burning fossil fuels would warm the planet." Yet for years, "the oil giant publicly cast doubt on climate science, and cautioned against any drastic move away from burning fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change."

Big Oil is at fault for climate change, and it can certainly afford the costs - which are uniquely necessary - and expensive - in New York. A new report from Rebuild by Design "Atlas of Disaster: New York State'' identifies the impacts of recent climate disasters across New York State at the county level, for the years 2011-2021. The data shows that every single county in New York has experienced a federal climate disaster between 2011-2021, with 16 having five or more disasters during that time. In that decade, more than 100 New Yorkers died as a result of climate-driven disasters. In 2022 that number grew exponentially when Winter Storm Elliot in Buffalo killed 39 people.

In a separate report, Rebuild by Design estimated that the climate costs to New York could be $55 billion by the end of this decade. Furthermore, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated that it would cost $52 billion to protect NY Harbor alone. And while storms get worse, sea levels are rising and groundwater poses a higher risk of flooding - and we don't even know how much yet. Clearly, New York is facing staggering – and growing – climate costs.

The Climate Change Superfund Act isn't just necessary – it's popular. According to a poll from Data for Progress, 89% of New Yorkers support fossil fuel companies covering at least some of the cost for climate damages. 200+ groups including key labor unions such as DC37 sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Heastie urging them to include the bill in the one house budgets. In their letter, the groups write that the fossil fuel industry should be subject to the state's climate costs since their "decisions led to global warming; justice requires that they-not New York's other taxpayers-be financially responsible for the tragically enormous climate crisis impacts that they created."

Comptroller Brad Lander sent a letter to Albany leadership calling on them to support the Climate Change Superfund Act and protect NYC taxpayers. In the letter, he wrote:

"[Climate] costs are particularly high in New York City. According to a recent study from Moody's Analytics, "New York City, in particular, faces the possibility of significant losses from rising sea-level rise given that Manhattan is surrounded by water and frequent flooding could prove crippling to an economy where much activity - and the ability to travel – is tied to low-lying land or subway tunnels." Another recent study from First Street Foundation found that New York City faces the greatest rise in risk of catastrophic hurricane damage over the next 30 years, more than any other city in the country. Average annual losses from hurricanes alone will skyrocket from around $2.1 million this year to $8 million every year in three decades. That's on top of the $52 billion the Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to protect New York Harbor alone, and another $55 billion experts are predicting will be necessary to protect the rest of the state over the next decade. That's more than $100 billion in spending for climate change, out of taxpayers' pockets."