FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, August 15, 2025
Contact: info@publicpowerny.org

Public Power NY Responds to Denial of Clean Path

Yesterday, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) issued an order denying the New York Power Authority’s (NYPA) petition to designate its Clean Path transmission project as a priority transmission project. In response, the Public Power New York coalition (PPNY) released the following statement: 

“This Hochul-endorsed decision will mean higher bills, more blackouts, and worse pollution across downstate New York. 

NYPA’s Clean Path transmission proposal rightly recognizes the crisis New York is facing: rising electricity demand and insufficient supply are driving up prices and making our energy system less reliable. As NYPA sets out to build more of the public renewable energy we need, Clean Path would ensure that energy can travel where it’s needed most. This common-sense planning is a model for the essential role the public sector must play to support New Yorkers’ needs — which is exactly why NYPA’s proposal received support from organized labor, environmental advocates, elected officials, and everyday New Yorkers alike. 

Instead, the Hochul-approved PSC has needlessly delayed an urgent solution. Ruling against NYPA’s petition is a ruling against labor, New Yorkers, and a more livable future. It only serves the interests of the fossil fuel companies, shareholders, and privately-run utilities that stand to get richer off the crisis. As our energy system continues to deteriorate under a crumbling status quo, New Yorkers will look back on Hochul’s decision not just as a missed opportunity, but as a preventable disaster.” 

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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.