The law, signed in 2024 by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, was challenged in court by a range of fossil fuel interests, business associations including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 22 Republican state attorneys general and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes ruled Monday that the state's climate law operated on territory governed by federal law for over a century and sought damages for the cumulative impact of conduct that has occurred nearly everywhere on Earth.
That, she wrote, conflicts with the need for a uniform national energy and environmental policy, and is otherwise not authorized by the federal Clean Air Act, which designates the EPA as the primary regulator of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Separately, trying to collect damages from foreign fossil fuel producers is preempted by foreign affairs doctrine, making it unconstitutional, Sannes wrote.
