“More Funds, More Projects” NYPA CEO CALLS Last Year's Funding for Public Renewables “Super Important”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, January 28, 2026

“More Funds, More Projects” NYPA CEO CALLS Last Year’s Funding for Public Renewables “Super Important”

Hochul’s 2026 budget proposal includes no funds for renewable projects as fracked gas prices skyrocket sending electric bills through the roof

Albany, New York – At today’s joint hearing on Governor Kathy Hochul’s energy and environmental conservation budget proposals, the CEO of the New York Power Authority (NYPA), Justin Driscoll, said the $200 million for public renewables that was approved in last year’s budget was “super important” and potentially “opened up new projects”.

“More funds, more equity,” said Driscoll would result in “more projects.” He also told Assembly Member Sarahana Shrestha that NYPA will use its low interest bonds to finance renewable projects.

New York is alarmingly behind on building affordable, renewable energy, but the governor did not include any funding for public renewables projects in her initial budget proposal this year and it’s being reported she is using budget negotiations to roll back climate law. Thousands of New Yorkers and elected officials are calling for $200 million for projects to address the energy affordability crisis.

Said Public Power NY Campaigns Coordinator Alex Patterson: “Hopefully Governor Hochul was tuning into the budget hearing and heard her own CEO of NYPA. Funding for renewables is crucial to projects being built and New York is dangerously behind on our targets for renewable energy.

We’re relieved to hear NYPA will use bonds to finance projects and that Driscoll finally admitted what we’ve maintained since the Build Public Renewables Act passed, that NYPA can fund a significantly larger buildout of public renewables without affecting its credit rating. The question is why haven’t they done so already to take maximal advantage of IRA funds, and why won’t they make the financial research they’ve done on this available to the public? Thousands of New Yorkers are calling on Hochul to include $200 million for renewable projects in the 2026 state budget to deliver on her affordable energy promise.”

Instead of leading the nation, NYPA recently backtracked on its strategic plan, approving a costly 1.5 gigawatt(GW) cut to the amount of renewables it plans to build, while Hochul’s energy plan doubles down on expensive fracked gas and nuclear. A report from Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media called Hochul’s “all of the above” energy plan “anti-affordability strategies”.

Energy bills across the country are expected to skyrocket as fracked gas prices recently jumped 70% due to freezing temperatures across large swaths of the country.

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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.