FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday March 27, 2025
Contact: Michael Paulson, info@publicpowerny.org, 917-690-0520
PUBLIC RENEWABLES MOVE AHEAD, SLOWLY
NEW YORKERS CALL FOR MORE SPEED AND URGENCY
New York, NY — After years of pressure by climate organizers, labor unions, environmental justice groups, and thousands of New Yorkers statewide, public renewable energy is becoming a reality. At this week’s Board of Trustees meeting, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) announced it has acquired a 20MW generation project in the town of Fort Edward in Washington County and will build, own, and operate the facility. Somers Solar is the first public power project to move forward under the mandate provided by the Build Public Renewables Act passed in the FY’23 budget.
NYPA CEO Justin Driscoll, previously under fire for opposition to the Build Public Renewables Act and past employment with a firm engaged in fossil fuel lobbying, also affirmed that NYPA is reviewing a portfolio of 3 gigawatts of renewable energy projects to potentially add to the Authority’s Strategic plan. An additional 3 GW would bring the plan to 6.3 GW total, still well short of the 15 GW necessary to meet climate goals, which has been called for by the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Caucus of the NYS Legislature, numerous organizations and 5300+ New Yorkers who made public comments on NYPA’s draft plan.
The Public Power NY Coalition released the following statement:
“At a time when the Trump administration is working to destroy both climate progress and democracy itself, New York must chart a path towards a livable future governed by everyday people, not billionaires. NYPA faces an urgent choice: delay climate progress and erode faith in government by ignoring the will of New Yorkers, or fight back by accelerating the deployment of public renewables and embracing the democratic mandate to build 15 GW of clean energy, create 25,000 green union jobs, lower our utility bills, and shutter super-polluting peaker plants in environmental justice communities. That is why Public Power New York will spend the remainder of the ‘25 legislative session working with our allies in the legislature and beyond to ensure that NYPA’s leadership responds to the needs and demands of ordinary New Yorkers.”
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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.