FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Contact: Lee Ziesche, info@publicpowerny.org, 954-415-6228
ADVISORY: Community Members, Labor and Electeds to Call on Hochul to Build More Public Renewables at Hearings in Albany
Monday, November 18, 2024 @ 10:00AM and 6:00PM
Albany, 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 to meet state climate goals and are calling on Hochul to send the plan back to the drawing board.
WHO: Community members, Troy Area Labor Council, Troy DSA, Capital District DSA, Mid Hudson Valley DSA, Public Power NY and Assembly Member Sarahana Shrestha.
WHERE: Albany Capital Center
55 Eagle Street
Albany, NY 12207
WHEN: Monday, November 18, 2024
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 come back with a final plan that will get New York back on track to meet our scientifically and legally mandated climate goals, create tens of thousands of green union jobs and lower energy bills for those who need it most.
“This is the moment to let the New York Power Authority know that the people of the Capital Region are invested in our own future,” said Brennan Howell of Capital District DSA. “We need an ambitious build out of public renewable energy for our climate, for good local jobs, and for lower utility bills. Join us, and the Public Power NY Coalition, in telling NYPA that we’re paying attention and that we won’t let an insufficient plan rob us of the future we deserve.”
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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.