FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 18, 2024
Contact: Lee Ziesche, info@publicpowerny.org, 954-415-6228

Statement on Assembly Energy Committee Hearing

NYSERDA declines to support public renewables, DPS mentions CLCPA “off-ramps”

If New York fails to reach our climate goals, it will be for one reason: Governor Hochul and Justin Driscoll’s refusal to build the 15 gigawatts(GW) of public renewables demanded by an array of climate and energy organizations, the state AFL-CIO and Building Trades Council, the American Lung Association, and 5322 New Yorkers, whose public comments NYPA claims to have lost in a spam folder, and has yet to acknowledge full recovery of.

Today’s Assembly Energy Committee hearing with NYSERDA showed nothing but commitment to that failure, with the state energy authority revealing it is not supporting NYPA’s renewable plan beyond “discussion,” while a DPS director mentioned “off-ramps” for the CLCPA.

With a climate denier headed back to the White House, New York must lead the way New Yorkers overwhelmingly demand. Instead of heading towards 2030 as a national laughingstock, we can be the state that created 25,000 green union jobs, lowered electricity bills, and became a climate model not even Trump could stop. Hochul and Driscoll must revise their paltry 3.5 GW plan to the 15 GW it will take to do it.