New Yorkers Demand Affordable Public Renewables, Governor Hochul Cuts 1.5GW, Killing Green Union Jobs and Utility Bill Discounts

PUBLICPOWERNY.ORG

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, December 8, 2025

New Yorkers Demand Affordable Public Renewables, Governor Hochul Cuts 1.5GW, Killing Green Union Jobs and Utility Bill Discounts

Albany, New York – The New York Power Authority is recommending cutting 1.5 gigawatts(GW) from its strategic plan to implement the Build Public Renewables Act, which will lead to the loss of energy savings for New Yorkers struggling with high utility bills, and kill 2500 green union jobs.

NYPA is led by controversial Republican Justin Driscoll who was handpicked by Kathy Hochul to lead the authority, and only confirmed through a loophole after the State Senate refused to confirm him. Under Driscoll’s leadership, NYPA originally proposed to build a paltry 3.3 GW, but following massive public outcry resulting in over 10,000 public comments from New Yorkers, amplified by elected officials like Zohran Mamdani, NYPA updated its draft plan this summer doubling the amount of public renewables to 7GW. New York needs to build 15GW to meet its legally mandated climate goals.

Now, as the energy affordability and climate crises worsen, Hochul is backtracking and cutting 1.5GW from the plan, committing to only 5.4GW. The cut in public renewables follows a series of actions by the Governor that go against climate science and law, and will also lead to higher, not lower energy bills. The NYPA Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on the plan at their meeting on Tuesday, December 9.

Said Public Power NY Campaigns Coordinator Alex Patterson: “Governor Hochul continues to hinder popular solutions to the energy affordability crisis and has instead chosen to implement Trump, Big Tech and the fossil fuel industry’s energy plan. We have already seen the results of decades of an “all of the above” energy strategy: runaway climate change and skyrocketing utility bills. Building 15GW of public renewables is the only solution that can deliver clean and affordable energy for New Yorkers. We call on the NYPA Board of Trustees to reject the 1.5GW cut to public renewables.”

A new report shows that top polluters from the fossil fuel industry have spent nearly $16 million lobbying Hochul against taking climate action. The damning report comes on the heels of the disturbing news that Hochul’s husband makes nearly $1 million a year at a law firm that represents the companies behind the widely opposed Williams NESE Pipeline and Greenidge Crypto Mine, that Hochul approved last month.

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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.