A federal court on Monday struck down a New York law that sought to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change. Brenda Sannes, an Obama appointee, ruled that New York’s “Climate Superfund” law is preempted by federal statutes.
Page F4From§Eachthe noon edition — 1 September 2026
Trump To Huddle With Energy Executives As Court Strikes Down Fossil Fuel Climate Liability Law
As it ran on the front
The filing: a court struck down the New York law that would have held fossil fuel companies liable for the costs of climate change. The schedule: the same week, the President is set to huddle with energy executives, according to the day's live updates out of the House. Two documents, one ledger.
Before the ruling, the liability sat on one side of the balance sheet, a number nobody had finished calculating, assigned to the companies whose product produced the bill. After the ruling, that number is gone, not paid, not settled — vacated. The companies that would have owed it are now, per the schedule, in the room.…
…(cont) This desk does not know what will be discussed in that room. The public record does not include an agenda. What the public record includes is a sequence: liability removed, invitation extended, same news cycle, same set of institutions on both sides of it.
Reconciling this is not complicated. One column, dated this week, shows a legal obligation eliminated. The other column, dated the same week, shows the parties who held that obligation gaining a seat at a policy table. In an ordinary ledger, those two entries would be unrelated. In this one, they are printed on the same page.
Somewhere there is a homeowner, a renter, a township, whose flood line moved, whose insurance premium moved with it, who was a plaintiff or a beneficiary of the law that no longer exists to hold anyone liable for the moving line. That household is not in the room this week. The companies are.
The gap here is not a dollar figure. It is a seat. One side of the ledger lost a liability. The other side of the ledger gained an invitation. This desk does not editorialize about whether those two entries belong in the same column. It only notes that, this week, they do.
“A court kills the law that would've made fossil fuel companies pay for climate damage, and that same week the White House pulls up chairs for the energy executives — that's not a coincidence, that's a thank-you dinner. The liability disappears, the invitation shows up. Guess who's picking up the tab now.”
“The court's ruling was a straightforward legal determination on jurisdiction, it has no bearing on the President's separate meeting with energy leaders, those are unrelated calendar items — although, sure, the timing is the same week, that's just how scheduling works, it's not a — okay, it's a lot of energy executives in one room right after that ruling, but that's not what I'm saying.”
The receipts
As House Speaker Mike Johnson tries to get through a legislative agenda this week, a group of hard-line conservatives may block his progress. Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Andy Harris (R-Md.) are among those threatening to oppose a rule vote to protest a Senate-passed government funding bill the lower chamber is set to take up...
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.