FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Contact: info@publicpowerny.org
Zohran Mamdani has called on Governor Hochul to build more public renewables
Zohran Mamdani has called on Governor Hochul to build more public renewables
New York, New York – Over 1 million New Yorkers voted for public renewables champion and ecosocialist, Zohran Mamdani, to be mayor of New York City.
Mamdani was a powerful advocate for the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA) which passed in 2023 and authorizes New York Power Authority (NYPA) to build and own renewable energy projects. Along with a movement of thousands of New Yorkers, Congressional Democrats, including AOC, Mamdani has called on NYPA to build at least 15GW of public renewables by 2030 to meet the legally mandated goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
The Public Power NY Coalition released the following statement: “Zohran Mamdani has been a leader in this fight from the start, and essential in getting the Build Public Renewables Act across the finish line. Now we bring public power to New York City! Just after Governor Hochul told a judge that the private sector won’t save us from the climate crisis, Zohran’s win provides a mandate for the solution to an affordabie and a brighter future: public renewables. It’s time to unleash the power of the public sector to create tens of thousands of union jobs, shutter racist, polluting fossil fuel plants and build affordable wind and solar at the scale the climate crisis demands.”
A recently released book, Organize or Burn by Professor Fabian Holt follows the “riveting” story of how organizers within the New York City EcoSocialist Working Group took an idea to reclaim NYPA, which was being used as “Andrew’s Cuomo Piggy Bank” at the time, and transform it to meet the state’s legally mandated climate goals and provide cheap, renewable energy to New Yorkers.
Following massive public outcry, NYPA updated its strategic plan to implement BPRA this summer, doubling the amount of projects it plans to build from a paltry 3.3 GW to 7GW. If NYPA can add almost 4GW of renewables in just six months, it can add enough to get the state to 15GW by 2030.
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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.