FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Contact: Michael Paulson, info@publicpowerny.org, 917-690-0520

BUILD PUBLIC RENEWABLES ACT MANDATED THE PLAN BY MAY 3

New York, NY — The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has ignored the legal deadline to produce a plan to phase out their super-polluting peaker plants by 2030. The Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), passed in 2023, mandated NYPA to produce their plan by May 3 of this year.

New Yorkers fought for and won the accelerated phaseout of NYPA peaker plants to correct a historic environmental injustice. The plants, sited in working class communities of color, contribute to disastrous health effects including elevated childhood asthma rates, increased incidence of heart and lung disease, and disproportionate levels of hospitalization.

Public Power NY issued the following statement:

“By ignoring the legal deadline for the fossil fuel phaseout plan, NYPA’s leadership continues to defy the will of New Yorkers and our elected representatives. The Build Public Renewables Act tasks NYPA with transforming our energy system to meet climate goals, lower utility bills, create union jobs, and retire peaker plants, but Republican NYPA CEO Justin Driscoll seems intent on preserving fossil fuel infrastructure and delaying our energy transition. New York demands and deserves better leadership as the climate crisis intensifies, utility bills spiral out of control, and environmental justice communities suffer with extreme health effects from peaker plants.”

###

The Public Power NY Coalition is a statewide movement of community and advocacy organizations fighting for an environmentally sustainable energy system that’s also racially, socially, and economically just. We believe energy and a habitable planet are human rights, and that we need to avert the climate crisis by eliminating the use of fossil fuels and transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy. We aim to accomplish these goals by taking over our for-profit energy system and bringing it under public, not-for-profit, local, and democratic ownership and management.