This Earth Week, Make Corporate Climate Polluters Pay!

ALBANY, NY (04/24/2023) (readMedia)-- Two new reports - from NYS Comptroller DiNapoli and Reason Foundation - show New York is in dire need of new climate resilient infrastructure. And while several crucial climate bills gain traction, the Climate Change Superfund Act is the only one that directly addresses the rising costs of infrastructure due to climate change and puts those at fault on the hook for the bill, instead of taxpayers. Infrastructure has already cost taxpayers millions this year: Last Friday, Governor Hochul announced a $4 million coastal resiliency project in Jefferson County, funded by taxpayers, part of a $300 million resiliency project for Lake Ontario. And in just the first two months of this year, she announced a combined $750 million in taxpayer funds to pay for climate change-driven damages.

As Albany leadership addresses Earth Week, electeds and advocates are demanding that lawmakers pass the Climate Change Superfund Act and make oil companies pay for climate damages and infrastructure resilience.

The new reports emphasize the need for new funding mechanisms to pay for climate resilient infrastructure. On Thursday, NYS Comptroller DiNapoli released a study finding that over a ten-year period (the last five and next five years), 55% of New York localities' municipal spending outside of NYC was or will be related to climate change. Separately, the Comptroller's office looked at New York City's FY 2023 budget and found that the City plans to spend $829 million on projects fully intended for climate change adaptation and resilience just this year. The City also plans to spend an additional $1.3 billion on projects that are partially for these purposes.

Another study from Reason Foundation ranked New York 49th in the country for highway conditions and cost-effectiveness. As storms grow more severe and frequent because of climate change, New York in particular will need funds to repair damages and make roads more resilient.

"Addressing climate change isn't just about windmills and solar power - it's about resilience, and climate resiliency needs in New York are gigantic. Unfortunately, they're only going to get more gigantic - and expensive - and taxpayers are on the hook for the costs. But the Climate Change Superfund Act puts the Big Oil companies at fault for flooding our basements, beating up our roads, and supercharging storms on the hook instead. These corporations knew the damage they were causing for years and did nothing - and now they're coming off of their most profitable year in history. They can afford it. Albany leadership must make corporate climate polluters pay!" said Blair Horner, Executive Director of NYPIRG.

"New York's taxpayers and businesses are already paying billions of dollars every year to adapt to the climate crisis, and those costs are only going to increase in the coming decades," said Senator Liz Krueger. "We have a choice to make in Albany – will we continue to burden New Yorkers with these growing costs, or will we force the companies that made the mess to help clean it up? We have the opportunity to lift this burden off New Yorkers; at this point, failure to pass the Climate Change Superfund is the functional equivalent of a $3 billion tax increase. Big Oil has spent well over half a century lying to the public so they can keep lining their pockets at our expense. Enough is enough. It's time for the adults in the room to step up and pass the Climate Change Superfund in this budget, and make the world's biggest polluters pay so New York families don't have to."

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said: "What these two reports indicate is what we already know: that the costs to address the climate crisis are enormous and are growing. What we also know is that the parties most responsible for this are the fossil fuel companies and that for decades these companies have obscured the truth, knowing full well that their products are the reason we are in the climate crisis we are in. While fossil fuel companies like Aramco made $161.1 billion in profits last year, they have left a mess in our environment. New Yorkers should not bear the burden of paying for the entire infrastructure costs because of climate change. The fossil fuel companies have made this mess, they should be the ones to clean it up. It is time to pass the Climate Change Superfund in this budget.

Background

The Climate Change Superfund Act is first-in-the-nation legislation to put Big Oil, who is still driving the climate crisis, on the hook for climate damages and resiliency. Currently, taxpayers are footing the bill for this mess. The legislation 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.

2022 was a record profit year for big oil, 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."