More Than 100 Organizations Call On Gov. Hochul to Include Climate Polluter Handouts Act In 2026-27 Executive Budget

October 28, 2025

October 28, 2025

Honorable Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York State
New York State Capitol
Albany, New York 12224

Dear Governor Hochul:

In 2024, New York State passed the Climate Change Superfund Act, thereby legally acknowledging that the fossil fuel industry is culpable for climate-related damages. We thank you for your leadership role on this landmark law. Yet, contrary to the majority of New Yorker’s opinion about the fossil fuel industry’s responsibility for climate change (1) , our Federal government has given that very industry a carte blanche opportunity to both expand control over our energy choices and their wealth, at great expense to all living things.

We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to include a repeal of the most egregious fossil fuel polluter subsidies, an estimated $350 million, in the 2026/2027 Fiscal Year State Budget as outlined in S.3606/A.3675. The Stop Climate Polluter Handout Act is simple — while New Yorkers subsidize the federally-supported fossil fuel industry, handing out $1.8 billion annually, New York State will pull back 20% (or $350 MIL) of those subsidies that represent the most noxious and harmful uses of fossil fuels. 

Over the past few years, while extreme weather events have scarred communities across the world and global temperatures have broken records, so have profits among the West’s largest privately held oil companies (2). The repeal of $350 million is estimated to be just one week of the fossil fuel industry’s profit from New York State.

How does it work? The Stop Climate Polluter Handouts Act amends the tax code to remove $350 million in tax handouts to the fossil fuel industry,  pinpointing incentives for the highest-polluting fuels including butane, ethane, low-grade shipping “bunker” fuel, the operation of fracked gas infrastructure, and more. The Act preserves tax breaks that benefit regular New Yorkers.   

With our state experiencing an affordability crisis  and a simultaneous multi-billion dollar budget deficit due to Federal cuts, it is the most opportune time to rethink these handouts. Repealing just some of the indefensible fossil fuel industry tax subsidies will help close the budget gap and provide revenue to pay for priorities with real public benefit. The fact is, these tax giveaways to Big Oil would never be passed in New York State today, so repealing them would result in the following fiscally responsible actions:

  1.  Tackle Affordability and Add Revenue for Public Benefit Uses/ Restore Federal Cuts. Repealing these handouts will raise $350 million in annual State revenue which could provide funding for public benefit use and/or help close the gap in funding created by the Trump Administration’s cuts.
  2. Avoid Double Hit to Taxpayers and Address Affordability. NYS taxpayers paid $2.7 billion annually for climate damage repair and resilience; it’s expected to cost hundreds of billions more over the next few decades (3) adding to affordability woes in NY State. On top of paying for oil and gas industry tax breaks, taxpayers will pay to clean up and prepare for climate impacts exceeding that provided in the Climate Change Superfund. 
  3. Reach CLCPA Climate Goals. Fossil fuel subsidies are outdated fiscal incentives, are misaligned with the CLCPA, and jeopardize our ability to reach legally mandated targets: a 70% renewable power sector and a 40% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030. To reach CLCPA goals we must stop relying on fossil fuels; a key step is to stop forcing taxpayers to subsidize them. 
  4. Align with the State’s Acknowledgement of the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Culpability for Climate Destruction. As law, the Climate Change Superfund Act acknowledges the fossil fuel industry’s driving role in the climate crisis and climate-related damage; it is indefensible for taxpayers to simultaneously subsidize destruction.
  5. Protect People & Communities. Intensifying heat waves, floods, and storms already wreak havoc across the state, with disproportionate impacts on low income areas and communities of color. We must stop incentivizing the polluters that exacerbate environmental injustice.
  6. Stop Inflating Industry Profits. Fossil fuels are one of the most profitable industries in the world, raking in $3 billion a day with profits that doubled from 2021 to 2022 (4). Taxpayer money should not be used to further inflate industry profits.
  7. Stop Incentivizing Fossil Fuels: Tax breaks should go to businesses offering public benefits, not to the wealthiest industry that causes mounting harm. Yet global fossil fuel subsidies have surged to $7 trillion annually, far higher than those for clean energy (5). We thereby give climate polluters the green light to keep up their destructive activity.

While the fossil fuel industry stands to gain billions through the Trump administration’s tax breaks, weakened environmental regulations, and the elimination of clean energy incentives,  New Yorkers will enter into a compounded energy affordability crisis with planned federal cuts to LIHEAP and potential reductions to NYSERDA’s  EmPower+ program – both oversubscribed programs.

We urge you to put an end to over $350 million in unjustifiable tax handouts to the fossil fuel industry by including the elimination of these subsidies in the next budget: include Stop Climate Polluter Handouts Act in the 2026/2027 Fiscal Year Budget. 

References: (1) US EPA, 2023; (2,5) NYPIRG, 2023; (3) International Monetary Fund, 2023;(4) The Guardian, 2022.

Click here or below to see the full letter.