Albany’s big news last week was Governor Hochul’s approval of the Climate Change Superfund Act. The Climate Superfund requires that companies responsible for the bulk of carbon emissions between the years 2000 and 2024 pay about $3 billion each year for 25 years to help the state defray the costs of climate change.

The rationale for the legislation, which enjoyed widespread support from hundreds of organizations, over 100 local elected officials, countless community activists, and bipartisan support in both houses of the state Legislature, was simple: Make the companies most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions pony up to offset the mushrooming state taxpayer costs of damages caused by a worsening climate and to cover the necessary investments to make infrastructure safer.

As the governor said in approving the bill, “With nearly every record rainfall, heatwave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment.”

Simply put, the Climate Superfund reduces by $75 billion the future taxpayer costs from more intense storms, hotter temperatures, and rising sea levels by shifting those costs to the biggest oil companies – who are primarily responsible for the damage and concealed the true dangers for decades.

While $75 billion may seem like a lot, it still is only a portion of the looming climate costs New York faces. It’s going to cost hundreds of billions to shore up New York against the impacts of climate change – estimates put the price tags at $52 billion to protect New York City Harbor, $75-$100 billion to protect Long Island, and $55 billion for climate costs across the rest of the state. The state Comptroller has predicted that more than half of local governments’ costs will be attributable to the climate crisis. Until now, these costs have fallen on taxpayers, even though Big Oil – with booming business coming off enormously profitable years – knew for years of the dangers and did all it could to keep the world from acting.

Now that the legislative battle is over and the implementation battles have yet to begin, the public relations war is engaged. Big Oil’s allies and political partisans criticized the proposal focusing on one major line of attack: that the Climate Superfund will result in higher consumer prices.

Expert economists and independent think tanks have disagreed. According to an analysis by the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law, “Regardless of market structures, oil companies are unable to pass on increases in fixed costs to consumers due to economic incentives and competition.” The Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, in a letter to Governor Hochul made the case that the Superfund Act will not raise the price of oil on consumers because that price is set by the global market.

But putting aside for the moment the clear and powerful economic analysis that the Climate Superfund will not raise consumer prices, there is another argument.

Right now, the public is paying 100% of the state’s current climate costs and would have been paying the full freight of those costs as they exponentially grow in the future. If opponents are right that costs will be passed on – and they’re not right – the public can’t be worse off. They can’t pay more than 100% of the costs.

Which then raises the question, why not roll the dice on the Climate Superfund? The worst-case scenario is the status quo – the public eats 100% of the costs; and the best case is that the taxpayer burden is reduced by a whopping $75 billion paid for by the enormously profitable oil companies.

Of course, political partisans, corporate ideologues, and fossil fuel industry mouthpieces would rather use Big Oil’s talking points and attack the plan based on its supposed impact on prices. They are not really looking out for the public; they are simply trying to politically harm the governor for her important decision to approve the law as well as to protect the interests of Big Oil.

But for the rest of us, the governor’s approval of the Climate Superfund is good news and a welcome holiday gift for New York taxpayers. Until her approval, New York taxpayers were 100% on the financial hook for climate costs. Now Big Oil will pay for a big chunk of the damages that they helped cause. As a result, New Yorkers will have their future tax burden reduced by $3 billion annually. It’s a win for taxpayers, the environment, and consumers.

That’s a great way to wrap up the year.