Hochul signs NY law that will charge $75B to oil, gas and coal companies for climate change but critics say customers will pick up tab

Gov.Kathy Hochul approved a controversial law that will force oil, natural-gas and coal companies to fork over a staggering $75 billion to the state for carbon emissions and allegedly contributing to climate change.But critics claim the law is unworkable, likely to be challenged in court and will only end up costing customers more.“What would you have them do? Not sell fuel in New York State,” said Ken Pokalsky, vice president of the New York State Business Council, which opposed the measure.The New York Climate Superfund is modeled after a federal law that holds polluters responsible for abandoned toxic-waste sites, advocates said.Money extracted from the petro firms over a 24-year-period would go toward resiliency projects, such as coastal protection and flood mitigation.“This bill would allow the state to recoup $75 billion from major polluters,” Hochul said Thursday in her bill approval message.She said the energy companies are responsible for emitting 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions into New York’s atmosphere.“For too long New Yorkers have borne the costs of the climate crisis, which is impacting every part of the state,” Hochul said, citing extreme storms.The petro companies should foot the bill, the governor said.An analysis conducted for bill sponsors state Sen.

Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx) — and obtained by The Post in August — showed foreign-owned and American companies together would pay about $3 billion a year over two-and-a-half decades.The oil giant Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia could be slapped with the largest annual assessment of any company — $640 million a year — for emitting 31,269 million tons of greenhouse gases from 2000 to 2020.Aramco — formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co.— is owned by the Saudi Royal family.The state-owned Mexican oil firm Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, emitted 9,512 tons of CO2 and could face an $193 million assessment for generatin...