Thursday, November 7, 2024 @ 10:00AM and 6:00PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 29, 2024
Contact: Lee Ziesche, info@publicpowerny.org, 954-415-6228
Lewiston, New York – The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is holding hearings for the public to comment on its recently released draft plan to implement the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA). New Yorkers who fought for and won the legislation are saying NYPA’s draft plan does not go far enough and falls short of state climate goals.
WHO: Community members, Clean Air Coalition of WNY and Public Power NY
WHERE: Niagara Power Vista
5777 Lewiston Road
Lewiston, NY 14092
WHEN: 10:00am-12:00pm and 6:00pm-8:00pm
WHY: After a powerful, four year-long campaign, New Yorkers won the most transformational climate and green jobs bill in the nation in May 2023 with the passage of the BPRA through the New York State Budget.
Since the bill’s passage, advocates and legislators have been warning that for-profit renewable energy developers will continue to drop projects and the state will not be able to meet its mandated goal of 70% renewable energy by 2030 unless NYPA steps up and builds at least 15GW.
NYPA’s draft plan proposes to build just a paltry 3.5GW of renewable energy with the expectation that many of those projects will not move forward. New Yorkers are calling on NYPA to return to its founding spirit as champion for the public good and go back to the drawing board to come up with a proposal that will get New York back on track, create tens of thousands of green union jobs and lower energy bills for those who need it most.
“If you want lower bills and more public renewables, we encourage you to come speak out, and are coordinating carpools from Buffalo,” said Bridge Rauch, an organizer with Clean Air WNY. “We need NYPA to be much bolder. Western New York powers New York State and the Great Lakes region – we have the unionized workforce and the infrastructure in place and ready to go. NYPA has an immense opportunity to be a world leader in the energy transition, and to do so justly and equitably, while undoing the past extractive harms to environmental justice communities.“
###
Note to the editor:
About Public Power NY
The Public Power NY Coalition is a statewide movement of community and advocacy organizations fighting for an environmentally sustainable energy system that’s also racially, socially, and economically just. We believe energy and a habitable planet are human rights, and that we need to avert the climate crisis by eliminating the use of fossil fuels and transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy. We aim to accomplish these goals by taking over our for-profit energy system and bringing it under public, not-for-profit, local, and democratic ownership and management.