photo by: Steven Allen Adams

Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, center, is joined by representatives of the West Virginia Coal Association and GO-WV on Thursday as he announced a federal lawsuit against New York state over a law the could levy financial penalties on coal, oil, and natural gas producers.

CHARLESTON — Attorney General J.B. McCuskey is joining other Republican states in opposing a New York law that could affect West Virginia’s coal and natural gas industry.

In his first press conference in the law library at the Attorney General’s Office in the State Capitol Building on Thursday, McCuskey announced that West Virginia was leading a multi-state coalition to file a lawsuit against New York state officials in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York Albany Division challenging the Climate Change Superfund Act.

McCuskey and 21 other states are asking the court to issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the new law and declare the law preempted by federal laws.

“Their legislature — signed by their governor — has decided that the energy producing states and the companies that drive their economies owe them $75 billion over the next 10 years,” McCuskey said. “Here in West Virginia, we stand up for people that shower after work instead of before it. And the men and women of the oil and gas industry and the coal industry, they’ve driven our economy, and they’ve built this country. We’re not going to allow states like New York to usurp the federal government.”

At the end of December, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation creating what she called a “climate superfund.” The law requires fossil fuel companies to pay into the fund based on their share of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Change Superfund Act requires companies engaged in producing or refining fossil fuels over an 18-year period between 2000 and 2018 and determined to be responsible for more than 1 billion tons of carbon emissions during that time to pay into a fund if state officials determining the companies have some connection to New York.

“All of these emissions were controlled by the federal government, regulated by the federal government, and were produced legally,” McCuskey said. “They are trying to go back and retroactively fine companies who were completely complying with all applicable federal laws for something that they were doing legally, which – when you think about it from that sort of yeoman’s perspective – is crazy.”

The Climate Change Superfund Act would target the extraction and production of oil, natural gas, coal. The law also does not put limits on the geographic scope of the emissions, meaning that New York officials could levy financial penalties on industries not based in the state but whose climate impact is determined to affect New York residents.

New York officials are expected to collect up to $3 billion annually over a 25-year period to reach a total of $75 billion for New York’s Climate Change Adaptation Cost Recovery Program. The funds would be used for climate change resiliency infrastructure projects across the state.

The law includes a very narrow appeals process, making it hard for companies to challenge determinations by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation regarding their liability under the Climate Change Superfund Act.

The lawsuit names New York Attorney General Letitia James; Sam Mahar, the interim commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation; and Amanda Hiller, the acting tax commissioner for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

McCuskey was joined Thursday by representatives of the West Virginia Coal Association and the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia.

“I can’t express how proud we are to be able to stand here shoulder to shoulder with Attorney General J. B. McCuskey,” said Chris Hamilton, president and CEO of the West Virginia Coal Association. “We’re just so thankful that you’ve taken the lead here against this draconian law that’s been passed and signed into law by the State of New York.”

“We’re powering their economies as we always have, either with natural gas or electricity, and we believe we do it very cleanly, very efficiently, and we send our product all over the world in the form of LNG (liquid natural gas),” said GO-WV Chairman Jim Crews. “We also applaud General McCuskey, his staff for all the great work they’re doing taking the lead on these issues that have been ignored by the federal government, or the impugning of these industries in the form of the federal government for so many years.”