Last week, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted a town hall in Astoria marking the fifth anniversary of the launch of the Green New Deal campaign. While the fight to pass federal legislation continues with the leadership of legislators like AOC, New Yorkers decided we couldn’t wait. A powerful coalition of climate organizers, environmental justice organizations, labor unions, and everyday people came together to fight for and pass the most extensive Green New Deal program in the US–the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA).
Ocasio-Cortez’s town hall spotlighted the Build Public Renewables Act because it delivers on the core promise of the Green New Deal: using the energy transition to reshape our society to benefit the many, not just the few. The law, passed last April after an intense four-year fight against fossil fuel corporations and their political protectors, will transform the energy system in New York by requiring a public agency, the New York Power Authority (NYPA), to build the renewable power generation that the profit-driven industry has failed to deliver.
Public renewables will play a key role in realizing Sane Energy’s mission of a democratically controlled, equitable, fossil-free energy system, and we are proud to have helped lead the fight as a core member of Public Power New York.
Making the Green New Deal a Reality
How does the Build Public Renewables Act make the Green New Deal a reality in New York? It directs the New York Power Authority–the state’s public energy agency–to rapidly scale up public renewable generation. Public power will:
Put New York on track to meet the state’s mandated climate goals
Shut down polluting peaker plants that are harming Black, Brown, and “Disadvantaged Communities” (as defined by New York State, although we prefer the term “priority communities”)
Fight the cost of living crisis by using revenues from public renewable projects to lower skyrocketing utility bills for low and medium income New Yorkers
Create tens of thousands of good, prevailing-wage jobs, retrain current fossil fuel workers, and develop new renewable energy workers.
The Build Public Renewables Act is a win for workers, utility customers, residents…pretty much everyone in New York State except for the fossil fuel companies and the politicians who enable these destructive corporations.
What’s Next?
While the Build Public Renewables Act is now the law of the land, the fight continues. Governor Hochul must ensure that the New York Power Authority moves as aggressively and quickly as possible to build enough renewables to meet our climate goals and provide New Yorkers with significant economic and public health benefits. It took years of fighting to pass the Build Public Renewables Act, and we will only win the full vision of a Green New Deal in New York if we continue the struggle. You can join the fight by sending the Governor a letter demanding that she follow the will of the people.
Let’s take a page from Ocasio-Cortez, who, in her discussion of the Build Public Renewables Act, reminded us what it takes:
“In agitating, organizing, working across the state, the entire time everyone’s saying ‘This is impossible! This is unreasonable! This is never gonna happen!’ And us saying ‘We’re gonna try to do it anyway!’ Eventually the insistence wins out!”
Michael Paulson is Associate Director at Sane Energy Project