Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id590533804
Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), and its passage in the New York state budget puts public power instead of private corporations in the driver’s seat for the transition to renewable energy. The law mandates the state’s public power authority, the New York Power Authority (NYPA), to plan, build, and operate renewable projects to meet New York’s ambitious decarbonization timetable — 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030, 100 percent by 2040 — where the private sector fails to do so on its own.
id590533884
The BPRA turns the renewable energy transition into a tool for empowering labor, materially improving working-class conditions, advancing racial justice, and laying the groundwork for true democratic ownership of our energy systems.
id590534310
while the NYPA is publicly owned, its board and CEO are chosen by the governor, giving the board every incentive to stay on its boss’s good side. This leads to the absurd situation where Driscoll, who testified against the BPRA last year, is now in charge of implementing it
id590534299
he BPRA requires the NYPA to consult stakeholders like unions, community organizations, and climate and resiliency experts in a strategic planning process to determine where, when, and how it builds new renewables, which it will then formalize into official plans.
id590534403
it will take time for the agency to build up the necessary expertise and capacity. To ensure that the renewable transition continues apace, the BPRA allows the NYPA to enter into public-private partnerships with developers with expertise in the field. Here is where socialists writing the law once again makes a difference. Our language ensures that the NYPA can enter such partnerships only if necessary, and that the agency maintain majority ownership of any such project, including of any subsidiaries formed to implement it. In other words, the bill prioritizes public power over the interests of green capital.