New York's attempt to make fossil fuel-producing industries pay into a $75 billion fund to repair the damage wrought by climate change was struck down by a federal judge, who said the sweeping law reaches beyond a state's responsibility and into an area of federal interest.
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.
Climate change activists urged Hochul's administration to appeal. A spokesperson for Hochul's administration said “taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for damages caused by polluters” and that the administration was reviewing the decision to determine its next steps.
President Donald Trump's administration previously challenged Michigan, Hawaii and Vermont over similar laws after he declared a “ national energy emergency ″ and ordered his attorney general to take action against states that may be illegally overreaching their authority in how they regulate energy.
In a statement, the Department of Justice said it is “delivering on President Trump’s order to protect American energy from state overreach.”
“New York’s law would have expropriated $75 billion from energy companies around the world during an energy emergency and in direct defiance of American foreign policy and federal law,” Adam Gustafson, a principal deputy assistant attorney general, said in a statement.
New York's law had required companies responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions to collectively pay $3 billion a year over 25 years into a fund for infrastructure projects meant to repair or avoid future damage from climate change.
Lawmakers approved the bill to force big oil and gas companies to contribute to the cost of repairs inflicted by extreme weather events and to underwrite resiliency projects such as coastal wetland restoration and upgrades to roads, bridges and water drainage systems.
The biggest emitters of greenhouse gases between 2000 and 2018 were to be subjected to the fines.
Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.
Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter.
FILE - A thick haze hangs over Manhattan in New York on July 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia bombarded the Ukrainian capital for more than 12 hours overnight and into Tuesday, killing at least a dozen people in another aerial onslaught that authorities said was aimed at menacing civilians.
The strikes marked an unprecedented sixth straight day of heavy Russian attacks on Kyiv since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor more than 4½ years ago. The consecutive aerial assaults are designed to grind down civilians by disrupting daily life, Ukrainian officials have said.
The cruise and ballistic missiles, jet-powered drones, glide bombs and artillery salvos targeted Kyiv as well as eight other regions. The strikes wounded more than a dozen people, including three children, just as millions of Ukrainian schoolchildren returned to classes Tuesday to start their fifth school year since the invasion.
The European Union’s top diplomat said Russia’s army is struggling to make progress on the front line and wants to scare off Ukraine’s Western backers with its air campaign.
“Russia’s war is becoming more ruthless and destructive, but it’s unfortunately not closer to ending,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at a meeting of the bloc’s defense ministers in Ireland. “Russia’s army is bogged down on the ground, and that is why they are killing civilians from the skies.”
The latest attack struck civilian infrastructure and residential buildings in several districts of Kyiv, authorities said, with eight people killed in the city itself and four others in the surrounding region.
Six employees of state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia were among those killed in Kyiv when a ballistic missile hit a depot and other property, company Chairman Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said in a social media post.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the dead included an Indian citizen.
Nearly 350 emergency workers were deployed in Kyiv and the surrounding region, Zelenskyy said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces carried out a “massive strike” on Ukraine with “precision-guided weapons” and long-range drones. The assault targeted facilities that manufacture and store weapons as well as military-related infrastructure, it said.
Ukraine’s air force said the attack began at 6 p.m. Monday, using ballistic, cruise and anti-radar missiles, as well as 218 drones and decoys. About a third of the drones were jet-powered, making them much harder to intercept than propeller-driven versions.
The main Russian targets were in the Kyiv and southern Odesa regions, the air force said in a statement.
The attack on the Odesa region on the Black Sea damaged civilian infrastructure and wounded one person, regional head Oleh Kiper said.
Two residential buildings were damaged, while a fire broke out at a textile factory. Russian forces also struck the Orlivka international ferry crossing on the border with Romania, he said.
Russia also shelled the northern Zhytomyr region, starting fires at an industrial facility and a warehouse, Ukraine’s Emergency Service said.
In the capital, first responders worked to clear rubble from damaged apartment buildings and free trapped residents.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its air defenses overnight intercepted 516 Ukrainian drones over 18 Russian regions, as well as the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea.
In the Leningrad region, the drone attack sparked a fire in the port of Ust-Luga, Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said, as Ukraine extended its campaign to hurt Russia's oil sector, which is a mainstay of the economy.
Ust-Luga is one of Russia’s largest oil and gas export terminals, more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) away from Ukraine. It has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks this year.
Elsewhere, the war in Ukraine was discussed Monday at a summit in Kyrgyzstan involving the leaders of China, Russia and India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin through a translator that India supports efforts to end the fighting.
“We need to move from endless war to the end of war, to the end of hostilities,” Modi said, adding that “this is very important for all of humanity.”
Associated Press Writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Locals watch as firefighters work after a Russian drone attack struck a residential building in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Firefighters work after a Russian drone attack struck a residential building in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Firefighters work after a Russian drone attack struck a residential building in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Locals watch as firefighters work after a Russian drone attack struck a residential building in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Locals watch as firefighters work after a Russian drone attack struck a residential building in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out a fire following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
