ALBANY, N.Y. — Twenty-two states sued New York state on Thursday, contending that a brand new legislation forcing a small group of main vitality producers to pay $75 billion right into a fund to cowl local weather change harm is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, filed in Albany, New York, lists Lawyer Common Letitia James and different state officers as defendants. Messages in search of remark had been despatched to the defendants.
In line with a launch, West Virginia Lawyer Common JB McCuskey led the coalition of states in opposition to the New York state Local weather Change Superfund Act, which requires funds for harm allegedly carried out from 2000 to 2018.
The legislation requires main fossil gas firms to pay into the fund over the subsequent quarter-century based mostly on their previous fuel emissions.
“This lawsuit is to make sure that these misguided insurance policies, being compelled from one state onto your complete nation, won’t lead America into the doldrums of an vitality disaster, permitting China, India and Russia to overhaul our vitality independence,” McCuskey mentioned in a launch.
“This legislation is unconstitutional, and I’m proud to steer this coalition of attorneys normal and courageous non-public vitality firms and trade teams in our struggle to guard in opposition to this overreach,” McCuskey added. “If we enable New York to get away with this, it is going to solely be a matter of time earlier than different states comply with go well with – wrecking our nation’s energy grid.”
The lawsuit accuses New York state of making an attempt to drive vitality producers and customers in different states “to subsidize sure New York-based ‘infrastructure’ tasks, equivalent to a brand new sewer system in New York Metropolis.”
It known as the legislation “an unpleasant instance of the chaos that may outcome when States overreach.”
In line with the lawsuit, New York desires guilty the small group of vitality producers for world greenhouse gases that entered the ambiance from many sources.
“But coal, oil, and pure fuel had been serving to New York throughout that point. They helped preserve the lights on in Albany, manufacture the metal that supported New York Metropolis’s iconic skyscrapers, and gas the trade that retains New York ports buzzing,” the lawsuit mentioned.
In addition to West Virginia, the states becoming a member of 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.