Last edited Fri Dec 27, 2024, 10:43 AM - Edit history (1)
The law won't start penalizing companies immediately. Instead, the state must come up with rules on how to identify responsible parties, notify companies of the fines and create a system to determine which infrastructure projects will be paid for by the fund. Legal challenges are expected.
. . . New York's governor signed the measure months after
Vermont put a similar law in place.
The article about the Vermont law also has no specifics, other than "polluter pays"
And yes, most of it will ultimately paid for by fossil-fuel consumers.
The costs have to be paid somehow. Otherwise it's paid for out of general tax funds, which at the state level are mostly regressive. And by all of us through climate-related damages we suffer either directly or by higher insurance premiums.
By making high-greenhouse-gas products more expensive, we discourage the dick-size competition of super-sized MAGA trucks, bitcoin mining, and we encourage some who run their A/C when the temperature is half a degree above perfect to try supplementing with far-lower-energy-consuming fans first like people who give a shit do. And to wear a damn sweater indoors in the winter (I had a roommate who expected that the temperature would be kept high enough to be comfortable sitting around in a tee shirt. That arrangement didn't last long. If that makes me an asshole, I am honored to be so-called)
The asshole companies that shove the energy-intensive AI down our throats when we do a simple Google (or Bing etc.) search will also have to pay more, as they should.
Some of the fees can and should be used to help lower income households with their heating bills for example.
Also, the more greenhouse-gas-intensive producer companies will have a competitive disadvantage compared to less polluting ones, so their executive bonuses and their shareholders will be affected too.
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