As Heat Dome Descends on New York, NYISO Says State Not Building Renewables Fast Enough, Future Blackouts Possible

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, June 30, 2026

As Heat Dome Descends on New York, NYISO Says State Not Building Renewables Fast Enough, Future Blackouts Possible

NYPA is empowered to build and own public renewables, but Hochul continues to push expensive, polluting fracked gas and energy guzzling data centers

Albany, New York – In a draft report, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) warns that the state is not on track to meet its 70% renewable energy goal by 2030 or 100% by 2040. The report says that with the current slow buildout of renewables under the Kathy Hochul administration, the state will only reach 40 percent by 2030 and could face blackouts in the future.

A potentially deadly heat dome will push temperatures in the state to over 100 degrees this weekend and likely send energy bills skyrocketing, highlighting Hochul’s failure to lead the transition to clean, affordable energy in New York.

Alex Patterson, Campaign Coordinator for Public Power NY, said: “By doubling down on expensive fracked gas and nuclear, and slow walking the buildout of public renewables, Kathy Hochul is fueling more heatwaves while steering the state toward blackouts. Hochul has the power to build a clean and more affordable energy system for all New Yorkers but is instead pouring fuel on the climate fire.”

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 Build Public Renewables Act, which authorizes New York Power Authority to build and own renewable energy projects.

The New York budget approved this year includes $100 million for public renewables, a bright spot amidst Hochul’s devastating rollbacks to New York’s climate law. New Yorkers are calling on the state to build at least 15 gigawatts of renewable projects by 2030.

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Note to the editor:

About Public Power NY

As chronicled in the new book “Organize or Burn.” Public Power NY is a movement fighting to ensure New York effectively carries out the Build Public Renewables Act by building 15 Gigawatts of public renewables by 2030. Hailed as the first statewide Green New Deal law, BPRA was written by PPNY and passed in 2023 thanks to four years of organizing by a multiracial, multi-generational movement of climate and advocacy organizations, labor unions representing millions of New Yorkers and tens of thousands of New Yorkers who have taken action from upstate, downstate, and everywhere in between. With federal climate action off the table, BPRA has enabled NY to not just play defense against Trump, but lead the way the way FDR created NYPA to do.