Hochul’s Energy Plan Breaks Climate Law

PUBLICPOWERNY.ORG

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, December 15, 2025

Hochul’s Energy Plan Breaks Climate Law

New Yorkers call for state to get back on track and lower energy bills by building 15GW of public renewables

Albany, New York – New York State is expected to approve an energy plan tomorrow that will violate the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).

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.

Alex Patterson, Campaign Coordinator for Public Power NY Coalition said: “New York’s energy policy under Governor Kathy Hochul has become increasingly similar to Donald Trump’s energy policy. Instead of committing to the 15GW of public renewables New York needs to get back on track, Hochul is choosing to break the law, backslide on public renewables and double down on expensive fracked gas and nuclear. Building 15GW of public renewables is the only way for Hochul to address the energy affordability crisis and the climate crisis. NYPA must be able to rise to the challenge which is why we need the Public Power Democracy Act.”

The Public Power Democracy Act (S8610), introduced last week by Assemblymember Sarahana Shrethsa and Senator Kristen Gonzalez, expands the total number of New York Power Authority (NYPA) trustees to 17, making it more representative of key stakeholders and constituencies impacted by its work and bringing it in line with other public authorities such as the MTA.

Under current NYPA leadership, the authority is not keeping pace with its increasingly important role in New York’s energy landscape since the passage of the Build Public Renewables Act. NYPA just backtracked and cut 1.5 GW of public renewables from its updated strategic plan, proposing to build an inadequate 5.6 GW when the state needs to build 15GW by 2030 to meet its legally mandated climate goals.

Public Power NY has also called for $200 million in funding for public renewables in next year’s budget.

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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.