Hochul Using Energy System As Slush Fund?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Hochul Using Energy System As Slush Fund?

Public Power NY Comments on Plug Power transferring cheap, public energy to AI Data Center

Alabama, New York – Controversial company Plug Power announced it will no longer build a hydrogen plant in Western New York and instead will sell its electricity rights to cheap power provided by the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to an AI data center.

The CEO of NYPA, Republican Justin Driscoll, awarded Plug Power, a client of his former lobbying firm, a large amount of low-cost hydropower, despite the company being sued for insider trading. Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Driscoll to run the power authority and has also pushed NYPA to build expensive nuclear energy to power AI.

Before the Build Public Renewables Act passed in 2023, former Governor Andrew Cuomo was accused of raiding NYPA for vanity projects. BPRA authorized NYPA to build and own renewable energy projects, but Hochul has so far failed to fully utilize the authority to reach the state’s climate mandates.

The Public Power NY Coalition released the following statement: “New Yorkers watching their utility bills skyrocket should ask: why is Governor Hochul using our energy system as a slush fund for corporations? As Hochul drives Trump’s Williams Pipeline into New York City’s water, demands the New York Power Authority build a costly nuclear plant for an unspecified AI company, and decrees that the illegal Greenidge Crypto Mine can continue polluting forever, it’s working class New Yorkers who foot the bill.”

Driscoll was never confirmed by the New York State Senate in 2023, after the Buffalo News reported that he oversaw systemic racial discrimination against Black NYPA employees and the Senate declined to hold a confirmation hearing. But thanks to a legal technicality he has been able to serve as NYPA CEO. This year the New York State Legislature passed a bill to close the “Driscoll loophole” and ensure democratic oversight over public authority appointments.

Under Driscoll’s controversial leadership, NYPA approved an inadequate initial plan to implement the BPRA, committing to just 3.3 GW of renewables. After massive public outcry resulting in over 10,000 public comments from New Yorkers, amplified by elected officials like Zohran Mamdani, NYPA said it will double the amount of public renewables it will build, adding an additional 3.5 GW of projects. The state needs to build 15GW to meet its legally mandated climate targets of 70% renewables 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.