ON EVE OF STATE OF THE STATE, GROUPS URGE ACTION TO MAKE POLLUTERS – NOT TAXPAYERS – PAY FOR CLIMATE DAMAGES

ALBANY, NY (01/09/2023) (readMedia)-- Climate Change-Intensified Devastating Storms Leave A Trail Of Death And Destruction; New Data Shows People Are 37% More Likely To Have Heart Failure During Extreme Cold; Climate Change Has Made Storms More Frequent & At Least 10% Worse

Ahead of the 2023 State of the State, more than 200 groups released a letter sent to Governor Hochul urging her to make big oil companies, not taxpayers, financially responsible for the growing climate damages facing the state. The state's finances will be left in shambles unless new revenues are available to respond to the more intense storms and rising sea levels resulting from a rapidly heating planet. Powerful and deadly storms continue to take New Yorkers lives - the most recent Buffalo snowstorm killed over 40. Meanwhile, the oil, coal, and gas companies most responsible for climate change are raking in record profits. The groups urged that it's time for climate polluters - not New York taxpayers - to pay for the catastrophic mess they made.

"For decades, reckless fossil fuel companies knew about and deliberately hid the damage they created, stunting progress and accelerating extreme weather to protect their profits. They knew people would die, and they didn't care. Now, in order to protect New Yorkers from the deadly impacts of climate change, taxpayers are faced with billions of dollars in resilience measures. We can't let these wealthier-than-ever companies off the hook. Governor Hochul: lead the nation on climate and make polluters pay!" said Blair Horner, Executive Director of NYPIRG.

In their letter, the groups (which included NYPIRG, WE ACT, Food & Water Watch, and League of Women Voters NYS) wrote 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."

The Climate Change Superfund Act (S9417 Krueger/A10556 Dinowitz, 2022) requires companies most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to pay a total of $30 billion over ten years for the environmental damage they have done. The funds allow New Yorkers to invest in massive and life-saving infrastructure improvements, upgrade stormwater drainage and sewage treatment systems, prepare the power grid for severe weather, create systems to protect people from extreme heat, and respond to environmental and public health threats.

The recent storm in Buffalo was only the latest storm to devastate New York, and research shows that climate change has made deadly storms more frequent and at least 10% stronger. In September 2021, Hurricane Ida killed at least 43 New Yorkers and surrounding states. In 2011, Hurricane Irene killed 5. Superstorm Sandy killed 48 in 2012. But it's not just severe storms taking New Yorker's lives – according to a new study from the American Heart Association, extremely cold weather increases the risk of heart failure by 37 percent. Extreme heat increases risk of heart failure by 12 percent.

"Events, like last month's tragic and extreme snowstorm in Buffalo which is just the latest in a recent string of storms impacting New Yorkers, are becoming worse due to human-caused climate change. As these storms continue to get more and more extreme, we'll see more and more damage and lives lost," said Kevin Reed, Associate Professor, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.

In addition to unnecessary deaths, climate change has already caused billions in damages to New York State. Superstorm Sandy cost $19 billion and Hurricane Irene Cost $1.3 billion. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' plan to protect downstate NY from future storms projected a staggering cost of $52 billion. Without the Climate Change Superfund Act, NY taxpayers - who are suffering from the impacts of climate change – will be stuck with the bill.