McCuskey, Gas And Coal Groups Sue New York Over Climate Law

Republican Attorney General JB McCuskey said Thursday that West Virginia and 21 other states have sued over a New York law that fines fossil fuel companies for their past carbon dioxide emissions.

McCuskey, flanked by representatives of the coal and gas industries in West Virginia, said the power to regulate emissions rests with the federal government.

“All of these emissions were controlled by the federal government, regulated by the federal government, and were produced legally.”

The law, signed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in December, would fine fossil fuel companies $75 billion over the next 25 years to pay for damages caused by climate change.

Nearly half of New York’s electricity comes from gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Its last coal plant closed in 2020.

West Virginia is one of the nation’s leading producers of both coal and gas. 

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, a Democrat, is listed as the lead defendant on the 76-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

In addition to the West Virginia Coal Association, the West Virginia Gas and Oil Association, and the 22 states, Alpha Metallurgical Resources, a coal producer, is listed as a plaintiff.

The complaint calls the Climate Change Superfund Act “an ugly example of the chaos that can result when states overreach.”