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FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced on Monday he has joined the filing of a multistate lawsuit challenging New York’s Climate Superfund Act, which he terms, “an outrageous and unlawful tax on American energy producers and job creators.”

Coleman joined a 22-state coalition to protect Kentucky’s affordable and reliable energy production, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York and led by West Virginia’s new Attorney General JB McCuskey.

The plaintiffs in the suit claim New York’s law could impose $75 billion of liability on energy producers that use fossil fuels by requiring them to pay into that state’s “climate Superfund” based on past greenhouse gas emissions from 2000-2018.

“For generations, Kentucky workers and energy producers kept the lights on and powered this country’s greatness,” Coleman said. “Now, New York wants to punish us with a politically motivated tax that will drive up utility prices and endanger Kentucky jobs. They can try to disparage us as ‘flyover country,’ but my two dozen AG colleagues and I are going to fight this. with everything we’ve got.”

He pointed out New York relied on coal, oil and natural gas during the nearly two-decade period, keeping the lights on for New York City’s iconic skyscrapers and driving its economy. Now, the state wants to punish the energy workers and producers who made that possible.

Coleman noted, the lawsuit shows how the New York law will be devastating to traditional energy producers, including coal producers in Kentucky, leaving them with no other option than to cease operations, resulting in massive job losses.

Proceeds from New York’s Superfund are earmarked for “climate change projects,” including such things as improvements to New York’s storm water drainage system and air-conditioning of its public buildings. The coalition is asking the court to, among other things, issue an injunction and declare the Act preempted by federal statutes.

Coleman was joined in the West Virginia-led lawsuit by attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

Here is where you can read the lawsuit.