Attorney General Coleman announces lawsuit over New York climate tax

HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Attorney General Russell Coleman announced the filing of a multistate lawsuit challenging New York’s Climate Superfund Act.

AG Coleman says the act will put a tax on American energy producers and job creators. AG Coleman joined a 22-state coalition to “protect” Kentucky’s “affordable and reliable” energy production. New York’s law could impose $75 billion of liability on energy producers that use fossil fuels by requiring them to pay into that state’s “climate Superfund” based on past greenhouse gas emissions from 2000 through 2018.

“For generations, Kentucky workers and energy producers kept the lights on and powered this country’s greatness. Now, New York wants to punish us with a politically motivated tax that will drive up utility prices and endanger Kentucky jobs,” said Attorney General Coleman. “They can try to disparage us as ‘flyover country,’ but my two dozen AG colleagues and I are going to fight this outrageous tax with everything we’ve got.”

AG Coleman’s office says the lawsuit shows how the law will be devastating to traditional energy producers, including coal producers in Kentucky, leaving them with no other option than to cease operations, resulting in massive job losses. Proceeds from New York’s Superfund are earmarked for “climate change projects,” including such things as improvements to New York’s storm water drainage system and air-conditioning of its public buildings. The coalition is asking the court to, among other things, issue an injunction and declare the Act preempted by federal statutes.

The lawsuit can be viewed below.

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