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NYSUT Passes Resolution Calling on NYPA to Build 15GW of Public Renewables
New York, New York- The New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) Board of Directors unanimously passed a resolution calling on the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to build at least 15GW of public renewables by 2030.
The resolution urges NYPA to ”develop significant renewable energy capacity on CUNY and SUNY campuses, including distributed solar and thermal energy networks, to modernize our members’ working environments and our students’ learning environments.”
Following massive public outcry, NYPA updated its strategic plan to implement the nation leading Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA) this summer, doubling the amount of projects it plans to build from a paltry 3.3 GW to 7GW, but still far short of the 15GW needed to meet the state’s legally mandated climate targets.
PSC-CUNY President James Davis said, “We are pleased that with the resolution Participate and Ensure Decarbonization of Our Public Schools, Colleges, Universities and Hospitals (9/20/25), the NYSUT Board of Directors has shown how to challenge the federal government’s effort to reverse New York State’s clean energy momentum. NYSUT has reaffirmed its commitment to building public renewable energy and engaging members in our workplaces; union activism is critical for climate protection. And now the New York Power Authority is urged to center the statewide effort to advance 15 gigawatts of renewable energy on our public schools, colleges, and hospitals. As a union with strong labor principles, it is important that NYSUT encourage new green union job creation and the application of robust labor standards in the process of meeting the state’s clean energy goals. As an education union, it is also important to assert the value of our college campuses that have strong Environmental Science programs.”
“Labor, elected officials and thousands of New Yorkers are united around a common demand for 15GW of public renewables because we know it is the only way to reach our legally mandated climate goals, lower electric bills, close polluting power plants and create tens of thousands of green union jobs,” said the Public Power NY Coalition. “Who will Governor Kathy Hochul listen to, New Yorkers or Donald Trump? The Hochul-Trump pipeline and the rest of Trump’s energy policy will only benefit the fossil fuel industry, private utilities and Big-Tech. The New York Power Authority was founded to serve the people of New York and Hochul needs to fully utilize the most powerful tool in the toolbox.”
Congressmembers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Paul Tonko organized a letter last week signed by seven members of Congress urging NYPA to ramp up renewables, and Hochul’s own Lieutenant Governor, Antonio Delgado, was one of thousands of New Yorkers who submitted a public comment calling on NYPA to build 15GW. Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani put out a call for comments and New Yorkers helped drive comments through a series of popular videos highlighting the importance of the fight for public renewables and Hochul’s embrace of President Trump’s energy policy.
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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.