Does the New York Power Authority lack authority?

This is week 3 of bloggin' about public power here on Green Juice. Find week 1 here and week 2 here.

Life is full of contradictions.

For instance, people park in the driveway, but drive on the parkway. People also drive in the bus lane, and park in the bus lane.

Today, we take a look at a couple other contradictions in the world of public power. Then we attempt to resolve them. It should be satisfying... while leaving you wanting more. The contradictions abound. Let us begin.

Contradiction: NYPA is backtracking on building renewables

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is the largest state-owned utility in the country. They are in possession of a sterling bond rating that allows them to raise vast sums of money at negligible interest rates. Furthermore, as of 2023, they are authorized and directed by law to build all the wind, solar, and batteries New York needs to achieve 70% renewable energy generation by 2030 and 100% by 2040...

...and yet, NYPA is scaling back their plan to build renewables. At a board meeting last week, NYPA announced that they no longer intend to build the 7 gigawatts of public power promised to us over the summer. Their revised plan is to build just 5.5 gigawatts—woefully short of the 15 GW New York desperately needs.

New York’s public utility approves plan to build 5.5GW of renewables

The move nearly doubles NYPA’s initial renewables goal but still scales back from summer targets. The agency blames Trump’s tax-credit cuts and grid…

Canary Media

Who's to blame for NYPA's backtrack? Everybody but themselves, apparently.

NYPA is blaming...

1. Trump, for killing the Biden-era tax credits that made renewables cheaper to build. This has led some of the private energy developers NYPA leans on to pull out of projects.
2. The brutally slow interconnection queue, which routinely makes energy developers wait years to get approval to hook up to the power grid.
3. The lack of transmission lines, which we need a lot more of to bring electricity down from solar farms upstate to the big city.

To be clear, these are legitimate hurdles. But NYPA—the New York Power Authority—seems to think they're helpless to do anything about it.

Not very authoritative!

Let's move onto our second contradiction.

Contradiction: I think we should give NYPA a bunch of money

Yeah, this one's on me. I want to give NYPA a whole pile of money—$200 million, to be specific. And I need your help to do it.

Context: it's budget season up in Albany, and the NYC-DSA Ecosocialists and Public Power NY are pushing New York Governor Kathy Hochul to set aside $200 million for publicly owned renewable energy projects in this year's state budget. This money would go towards funding NYPA's clean energy buildout.

If $200 million sounds like a lot, know that it would account for just .07% of this year's $254 billion budget. New Yorkers can have a little clean energy as a treat... right?

If you agree, click the link below and send Kathy Hochul a pre-written letter. It'll only take a second.

Fund Public Renewables to Lower Our Bills!

The twin crises of climate change and the cost of living require immediate action. As Donald Trump and the Republican Congress continue to fan the flames of the crisis, it is up to states like New York to lead. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” phaseout of clean energy tax credits threatens to halt all advancements in renewable energy buildout. However, in New York, we have the opportunity to make relatively small investments that have an outsized impact in reaching our climate targets and providing energy affordability to those most in need. Governor Hochul has the opportunity to continue advancing the renewable energy buildout and slash utility bills. Tell her to invest $200 million in public renewables in this years budget!    

But, okay, you're wondering: why should we give NYPA $200 million if a) they can easily raise money with bonds and b) they claim they can't build anything, anyway?

Let's resolve these pesky contradictions.

Resolution: let's pass a bill to democratize NYPA

It is my opinion that NYPA does not, in fact, lack the authority to secure a clean energy future for all New Yorkers. They could absolutely get their asses into gear—raise money, rely less on private developers, fight the distribution utilities, build more transmission lines, or bypass the need for transmission by building Distributed Energy Resources—and slay the systemic foes they're up against.

All NYPA needs to do is put the right people in the boardroom.

Enter a brand-spankin'-new bill: the Public Power Democracy Act.

The PPDA would increase the number of folks who sit on NYPA's board from seven to 17. These 10 new members would be appointed by someone other than Governor Kathy Hochul. The bill stipulates who should be appointed. I quote from City & State:

The bill lays out specific requirements for a majority of the appointees. The governor’s seven picks must include one “bona fide expert” each in the fields of public finance, consumer advocacy and environmental justice. The state Senate majority leader must appoint two union representatives, one from workers engaged in a collective bargaining agreement with NYPA and one from workers engaged in a power purchase agreement with the authority. The Assembly speaker rounds out the trustees with one expert each in renewable energy citing and building electrification.

We need to stack NYPA's board with energy and climate experts from outside the conservative corridors of utility companies. Fewer industry-insiders, more folks who grasp the urgency of the climate and power crises, who are ready to respond with the aggressive tactics this moment demands.

NYPA could become the public power leader this collapsing nation desperately needs. A Johnny Appleseed figure, spreading wind, solar, and batteries across the land. They could make the Adirondacks look like this solar farm in China (don't yell at me):

To do all that, we gotta pass this bill.

But I'll leave you with one last contradiction: much of the language in the new Public Power Democracy Act was included in the original text of the Build Public Renewables Act, passed in 2023. Kathy Hochul fought tooth-and-nail to get that language stripped out of the BPRA.

I've got $16 million that says Hochul tries do it again.

This is our fight to win. Let's fund NYPA via the state budget, so they can keep their precious bond rating intact. And then let's rearrange the chess pieces—and add a bunch more chess pieces to the board—to ensure they put that money to good use.

Excelsior!

P.S. Programming note: Green Juice will be taking a week (or maybe two!) off. Happy holidays, you beautiful animals.