FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Contact: Michael Paulson, info@publicpowerny.org,917-690-0520
NYC Comptroller Report Calls on NYPA to Build More Public Renewables
NYC Comptroller Report Calls on NYPA to Build More Public Renewables
New York, New York – In a new report, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander calls for more public renewables to fight unaffordable energy bills and deadly temperatures.
“The renewable energy sector is dominated by profit-seeking private developers that do not necessarily share policy goals for energy affordability. By offering a democratic approach to renewable energy development, public power aims to achieve a just transition to clean energy while keeping energy costs affordable and establishing high-road labor practices,” the report says.
The report recommends expanding access to affordable energy through the implementation of the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA). The BPRA, passed in 2023, authorizes the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to build and own renewable energy. Since the bill’s passage, NYPA has announced it plans to build an initial 3GW of projects, with a potential additional 3GW in the works, but so far only one project is planned for New York City.
The Public Power NY Coalition released the following statement:
“The Comptroller’s report makes it clear, if we don’t build more public renewables people will die as temperatures and electric bills continue to rise.
NYPA and CEO Justin Driscoll must stop stalling on retiring super polluting, racist peaker plants in New York City and go all in on public renewables. Thanks to the Build Public Renewables Act, NYPA has the power to build enough renewables to end this public health disaster and lower energy bills. All that’s lacking is the leadership to get it done.”
Affordability has been a key issue in the New York City mayoral race, and now so is BPRA with the Comptroller’s push for more public renewables and Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani’s legislative experience as a key figure in passing the bill coming into focus. City and state leadership will need to address the issue of energy affordability through a mass buildout of public renewables on the timeline that science demands.
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Note to the editor:
About Public Power NY
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.