FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, March 12, 2026
Contact: info@publicpowerny.org
Assemblymembers: We Can’t Lower Energy Bills Without Public Renewables
Fracked gas and greed are the problem, Assembly budget proposal includes $200 million for NYPA to build solution
Albany, New York – New Yorkers’ unaffordable energy bills are at the heart of this year’s state budget negotiations and Governor Hochul is falsely blaming the state’s nation leading climate law, while ignoring the most powerful tool in our toolbox to lower bills and meet our climate targets: public renewables.
Extreme winter cold and Trump’s war with Iran have driven up the price of fossil fuels, sending already high bills skyrocketing. The New York State Assembly’s one-house budget proposes a two year freeze on utility rate hikes and includes $200 million for the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to build public renewables to create long-term affordable energy for New Yorkers.
Brooklyn Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, said: “New Yorkers’ bills are skyrocketing because of volatile fracked gas prices, the ever rising cost of service delivery, and corporate utility greed. We can’t take control of our energy and lower utility bills without public renewables. The private market has proven it’s not up to the task, so if Governor Hochul is serious about providing bill relief for those who need it most, she’ll use New Yorkers money wisely and invest $200 million in funding for public renewables in the final budget.”
New York is perilously behind on meeting the legally mandated targets of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which require the state to be at 70% renewable energy by 2030. Instead of stepping up to meet the moment, Governor Hochul is proposing to cook the books on climate and use budget negotiations to sabotage the law.
“The current status quo where fossil fuel billionaires offer nothing but rising costs, wars over oil, and climate chaos cannot be our future. Full democratic control of our energy is the only way forward. I’m proud to lead in calling for a $200 million investment in public renewable projects in the upcoming budget,” said Assemblymember Claire Valdez. “We must take a hard, honest look at the current state of affairs. The governor keeps talking about rolling back our climate laws. We are racing toward climate breakdown, and the decisions we make today will shape the lives of generations to come. New York can and must lead the way in building the public renewable infrastructure we need to lower energy bills, mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis, and put New Yorkers to work at green, union jobs. Anything less would be a complete abdication of our duty as legislators to deliver for working people.”
Thousands of New Yorkers and elected officials, like Zohran Mamdani, have called on Hochul’s NYPA to build the 15 gigawatts(GW) of public renewables necessary for the state to meet CLCPA targets and lower energy bills.
But instead of leading the nation, Hochul’s NYPA is backtracking on its strategic plan to implement the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), approving a costly 1.5GW cut to the amount of renewables it plans to build. The CEO of NYPA, Justin Driscoll, recently testified at a budget hearing that “more funds, more equity” would result in “more projects” being built.
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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.