One year ago I knew nothing about public power, not even what the term “public power” meant. I first heard about public power from a former colleague of mine at Sane Energy Project, where I’ve served as a volunteer advisor for the past eight years. I soon learned that New York State has the largest public power utility in the country—the New York Power Authority (NYPA)—which generates 25% of the state’s power and provides some of the lowest cost electricity in the nation. Even better, 80% of the electricity NYPA generates is carbon-free.
Then governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt accompanies original NYPA Trustees on a visit to a potential hydroelectric site on the St. Lawrence River in 1931.
The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), adopted in 2019, requires that New York’s electricity sector become greenhouse-gas-emission free by 2040. Now, in the midst of the planetary crisis we find ourselves in, in a moment when speed is everything, I have no faith that for-profit utility companies (like Con Ed and National Grid) are going to move to renewable energy as quickly as the crisis demands. I was happy to learn that the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), which would expand NYPA’s capacity to provide 100% renewable energy to its customers, is moving forward in Albany. The law would also require NYPA to phase out existing non-renewable generation as quickly as possible and to hire current utility and fossil fuel workers for renewable energy jobs.
On January 13, I joined a spirited action in midtown Manhattan demanding that Governor Hochul include funding for the BPRA in her executive budget. I was thrilled to see hundreds of people gathered on the steps of the New York Public Library to hear passionate speeches by elected officials and activists calling on the governor to act now. From the library, we marched east to her office on Third Avenue. I knew that at least one of my colleagues at Sane Energy Project was going to risk arrest by engaging in civil disobedience, and I wanted to be there to support her. In the end ten people, including two of my Sane Energy colleagues and two assembly members, were arrested for blocking traffic.
Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes, who represents Red Hook, Sunset Park, and northern Bay Ridge, is placed under arrest at the January 13, 2022 action.
On January 18, Governor Hochul shared her executive budget with New Yorkers. I’m disappointed she did not recognize the urgency of the moment and include the Build Public Renewables Act in it. We need this law to be enacted now. In the coming months, Sane Energy Project and other organizations will be pushing state lawmakers to include it in the budget that eventually goes to the governor for her signature. I hope you’ll join us.
Elliot Figman
JCAN NYC Member