New Yorkers Will Pay the Price for Hochul’s Fossil Fuel Dependence as War with Iran Rocks Global Economy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, March 5, 2026

New Yorkers Will Pay the Price for Hochul’s Fossil Fuel Dependence as War with Iran Rocks Global Economy

Public Power NY: “More fracked gas will not lower our energy bills. Only public renewables will.”

Albany, New York – Trump’s war with Iran will exacerbate the already dire energy affordability crisis, with Qatar already declaring force majeure on gas exports this week. As Governor Kathy Hochul continues to increase the state’s dependence on gas, she is ensuring New Yorkers will pay the price.

Instead of providing real solutions to New York’s energy affordability crisis, Hochul plans to take state budget negotiations hostage this year to roll back the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), like Trump recently rolled back EPA protections.

Hochul unsuccessfully attempted to use budget negotiations in the past to weaken the CLCPA and faces growing pressure to deal with skyrocketing energy bills across the state. At the same time, she has failed to utilize the most powerful tool in the state’s toolbox, building affordable, publicly owned renewables, and her energy plan proposes “anti-affordability strategies” of more fracked gas and nuclear power. Instead, Hochul recently called on legislators to “change the calculations” and cook the books on the state’s climate law.

Alex Patterson, Campaign Coordinator for Public Power NY, said: “The numbers that need to change are New Yorkers’ energy bills, not the science-driven mandates of the state’s climate law. The best way to Trump-proof our utility bills is to use the New York Power Authority to build 15GW of public renewables, not rely on a volatile, global fossil fuel system. More fracked gas will not lower our energy bills. Only public renewables can do that.”

Thousands of New Yorkers and elected officials, like Zohran Mamdani, have called on Hochul’s New York Power Authority (NYPA) to build the 15 gigawatt(GW) of public renewables necessary for the state to meet its legally mandated climate targets and lower energy bills. Instead of leading the nation, NYPA recently backtracked on its strategic plan to implement the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), approving a costly 1.5(GW) cut to the amount of renewables it plans to build.

New Yorkers and elected officials are demanding Hochul include $200 million for public renewables in her executive budget proposal, but Hochul’s 30 day amendments show she is more interested in catering to private utilities and fossil fuel companies. 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.