New York State currently subsidizes the fossil fuel industry by exempting it from paying $1.6 billion of Sales & Use Taxes and Petroleum Business Taxes every year. When I first learned of these subsidies, I was astonished. How could New York, which established some of the most aggressive targets in the nation for reducing greenhouse emissions in its climate law of 2019, still be handing out taxpayer dollars to businesses that continue to pump more of these emissions into the atmosphere?

Besides this obvious reason for taking a good, hard look at the subsidies, there are at least two more reasons why they no longer make any sense. First, the fossil fuel industry has been making enormous profits in recent years. In 2023, the global oil and gas industry earned a record income of more than $2.7 trillion, while they invested just 4% of capital expenditure on clean energy. Clearly, big oil and gas no longer need to be supported by these tax breaks, especially when they are turning around and investing so little in clean energy.

Second, New York passed the Climate Change Superfund Act last year in an effort to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the damage that its reckless business practices inflicted on the state. In other words, we are handing out subsidies to the same industry that we have just decided to impose stiff penalties on for its destructive behavior.

The Stop Climate Polluter Handouts Act (S3389/A7949), currently being considered by the state legislature, seeks to pull back on the incentives that benefit the most highly polluting fuels and their most unreasonable uses, including high-emission commercial airline fuel and low-grade shipping “bunker” fuel, the operation of fracked gas infrastructure, industry research and development, and more.

The bill targets fossil fuel corporations’ most egregious actions and protects ordinary New Yorkers by preserving some tax breaks that benefit the public such as the home heating credit for low and middle-income households and an agricultural exemption that helps small- to mid-sized farmers. In total, the legislation would end over $330 million in fossil fuel subsidies. At a time when Washington is taking steps to make huge cuts in the federal budget, cuts that would be extremely damaging to New York, the bill would also help to close the state’s budget deficit.

In short, the Stop Climate Polluter Handouts Act is a commonsense bill, raising revenue for the state while aligning state spending with New York’s 2018 climate law targets and holding fossil fuel companies accountable to pay the taxes from which they have been exempted for decades. There are only a few days left in this year’s legislative session, so time is running out. The legislature needs to move quickly to approve this measure and send it on to Gov. Hochul for her signature.