FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 22, 2025
Contact: Lee Ziesche, info@publicpowerny.org, 954-415-6228
As Trump Attacks IRA, New York Must Lead The Way
Without 15GW of Renewables, New York will Fail to Meet Climate Targets and Let Trump’s Fossil Fuel Agenda Win
As Donald Trump orders federal agencies to “immediately pause” spending of Inflation Reduction Act funding, it is clearer than ever that the fate of our planet depends on states like New York. Yet our state is not on track to meet the legally mandated targets of its groundbreaking climate law and Governor Hochul and her controversial CEO of the New York Power Authority (NYPA), Justin Driscoll, have so far refused to do what’s necessary: build the 15(GW) of public renewables it will take to meet our goals.
With the NYPA’s final renewables plan due in 9 days, it’s not too late for Hochul to commit to the 15 GW called for by the state AFL-CIO and Building Trades Council, the American Lung Association, legislators, and 5322 New Yorkers, whose public comments NYPA claims to have lost in a spam folder, and has yet to acknowledge to the public.
With a climate denier back in the White House doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry, New York must lead the way. Instead of rolling out the red carpet for Trump’s fossil fuel agenda by rolling back our climate law, we can be the state that built green economic populism by creating 25,000 green union jobs, lowering electricity bills, and becoming a climate model not even Trump can stop.
By showing how states can use public power to do what for-profit corporations and the federal government won’t, New York can create a model for other states to follow, just as we did when we passed the CLCPA in 2019, and when FDR created the New York Power Authority in 1931. But Hochul and Driscoll must revise their paltry 3.5 GW plan to the 15 GW–including 5 GW in NYC–that it will take to do it.
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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.