In a breathtaking display of political malpractice, the NYS General Assembly just adjourned the 2023-2024 legislative session in Albany without taking a vote on several crucial pieces of climate legislation.

The final days of the session turned into a brawl to rescue congestion pricing after Gov. Kathy Hochul paused the program just weeks before it was set to begin. As a result, key bills were left by the wayside.

They included the NY HEAT Act, which would stop utilities from automatically charging ratepayers for new gas lines, a measure to reduce plastic packaging, and an expanded bottle deposit law. Both the NY HEAT Act and the Packaging Reduction Act had already passed in the Senate by wide margins, and they had the backing of a majority of co-sponsors in the Assembly, but they never came to a vote.

“This is taking us backwards where we need to be to meet our climate law mandates and to protect people and save them money,” said Liz Moran, a state policy advocate at Earthjustice.

Moran pointed out that NYS lawmakers approved the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in 2019, with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050. But since then, she said, Democratic leaders in Albany have been unwilling to take the steps needed to actually achieve that goal.

“We will not forget this failure as we struggle with utility shutoffs, high temperatures, and bad air this summer,” said AGREE executive director Jessica Azulay, joining the call for a special session to take up the NY HEAT Act.

The governor’s decision to pause congestion pricing, combined with the failure of the other bills to get a proper hearing in the Assembly, is disconcerting, to say the least. These actions displayed the power of the fossil fuel industry to get its way in Albany, thanks to the flood of dollars it’s handing out in what is an election year.

There was one place where Big Oil failed to get its way, though. In the final hours of the Assembly session—at 3:22 am, to be exact—the Climate Change Superfund Act secured passage.

The bill would charge fossil-fuel companies a total of $3 billion a year for 25 years to pay for costs associated with the destruction caused by climate change.

The Climate Change Superfund Act now lands on Gov. Hochul’s desk, awaiting her signature. If enacted, New York will join Vermont as the second U.S. state with a law requiring fossil-fuel companies to pick up at least a portion of the tab for the huge damage they’ve knowingly inflicted.

There will be tremendous pressure brought to bear, as there should be, by climate justice and environmental groups across the state to make sure the governor signs this historic bill. If she does, it will mark a significant step towards holding climate polluters accountable.