Chief Judge Brenda Sannes of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York blocked New York's Climate Change Superfund Act on Aug. 31, ruling that federal law preempts the state's effort to require fossil fuel companies to help pay for climate-related infrastructure and adaptation costs.
New York enacted the law in 2024 to establish a climate adaptation cost-recovery program requiring certain fossil fuel companies to contribute a combined $75 billion toward infrastructure projects intended to help the state adapt to climate change. The law imposed strict liability and assigned companies' shares based on greenhouse gas emissions attributable to fossil fuel extraction and crude-oil refining from 2000 through 2024.
A coalition of 22 state attorneys general led by West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey (R), along with coal, oil, and gas industry groups, sued New York in 2025, arguing that the state could not impose costs based on greenhouse gas emissions occurring outside its borders and that the federal Clean Air Act preempted the law.
