Last week, a federal judge blocked New York's climate superfund law, following an earlier ruling that reached the same conclusion. The law, signed in 2024, would have required fossil fuel companies to pay $75 billion for climate-related damages, including extreme weather recovery and infrastructure upgrades. Both decisions found the measure preempted by the Clean Air Act, siding with industry plaintiffs and 22 Republican-led states. New York is expected to appeal.
Advocates say the rulings are a blow but not fatal. Seven lawmakers from Connecticut, Hawaiʻi, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and New Hampshire told Grist the decisions have limited relevance to their states, and most remain interested in advancing similar legislation. Vermont, the only other state to have enacted a climate superfund law, is now facing its own legal challenge from some of the same plaintiffs.
The larger threat, according to legal experts, is Suncor v. Boulder County, which the Supreme Court will hear next week. A broad ruling against state authority could nullify not only superfund proposals but also consumer, racketeering, and antitrust cases seeking climate damages. Vermont Law School emeritus professor Pat Parenteau warned that in the worst case, states could be left with billions of dollars in climate costs and no recourse.
Republican attorneys general and industry groups are already using the New York rulings to push back elsewhere. A New Jersey state senator called pursuing a similar measure a waste of time, and West Virginia's attorney general said he would sue any state that passes such a policy. The Supreme Court's eventual decision, likely next spring, will determine whether these state-level efforts{