New York Passes Climate Superfund to Make Polluters Pay

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In December 2024, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill that fines fossil fuel corporations $75 billion to pay into a superfund the state can use for climate-related damage. New York is now the second state in the nation after Vermont to pass such a bill. 

It seems as though every month there is news of extreme weather patterns that are often deadly and directly linked to climate change. In February 2025, 14 people died when rivers in Kentucky and the Ohio Valley flooded. One month earlier, multiple deadly fires broke out across Southern California, destroying thousands of homes and killing 24 people. 

Could New York and Vermont’s plans to fine fossil fuel companies work to curb the untenable costs of climate catastrophe?

Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Group, spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about the idea of a climate superfund and how it can be replicated nationwide.