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The lawsuit, filed in Albany, lists state Attorney General
Letitia James and other officials as defendants.
According to a statement, West Virginia Attorney General JB
McCuskey led the coalition of states against New York's Climate
Change Superfund Act, which requires payments for damage
allegedly done from 2000 to 2018.
The law requires major fossil fuel companies to pay into the
fund over the next quarter-century based on their past gas
emissions.
"This lawsuit is to ensure that these misguided policies, being
forced from one state onto the entire nation, will not lead
America into the doldrums of an energy crisis, allowing China,
India and Russia to overtake our energy independence,” McCuskey
said in a release.
“This law is unconstitutional, and I am proud to lead this
coalition of attorneys general and brave private energy
companies and industry groups in our fight to protect against
this overreach," McCuskey added. "If we allow New York to get
away with this, it will only be a matter of time before other
states follow suit – wrecking our nation’s power grid.”
“We look forward to defending this landmark legislation in court
and defeating Big Oil once again,” Paul DeMichele, a
spokesperson for Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's office,
said in an email.
The lawsuit accuses New York state of trying to force energy
producers and consumers in other states “to subsidize certain
New York-based ‘infrastructure’ projects, such as a new sewer
system in New York City.”
It called the law “an ugly example of the chaos that can result
when States overreach.”
According to the lawsuit, New York wants to blame the small
group of energy producers for global greenhouse gases that
entered the atmosphere from many sources.
“Yet coal, oil, and natural gas were helping New York during
that time. They helped keep the lights on in Albany, manufacture
the steel that supported New York City’s iconic skyscrapers, and
fuel the industry that keeps New York ports humming,” the
lawsuit said.
Besides West Virginia, the states joining the lawsuit are
Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North
Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,
Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
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