NYC Comptroller’s Office Testimony in Support of the Build Public Renewables Act

Thank you to Speaker Heastie and committee chairs Amy Paulin, Michael J. Cusick, and Steve Englebrightfrom the Committees on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, Energy and Environmental Conservation for holding this New York State Assembly hearing on the Build Public Renewables Act. My name is Steve Fox, the Strategic Organizer for Climate and Environmental Justice testifying on behalf of NYC Comptroller Brad Lander. The NYC Comptroller’s Office is committed to delivering a just transition from fossil fuels, standing up for New Yorkers who are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and ensuring sound, equitable economic policy. Earlier this year, the Comptroller signed onto a letter with 65 local elected officials from across the state urging this body to pass the Build Public Renewables Act, and I welcome the ability for our office to do so again at today’s hearing.

With last month’s Supreme Court ruling on West Virginia v. EPA, it is more important for city and state governments to act on climate issues than ever before. With the CLCPA, New York State has set ambitious emissions goals, setting an example for the country on how states can lead with a clear vision. However, vision alone is not sufficient to rise to the demands that the reality of climate change presents.

The reality of our situation is that we have spent decades building a physical grid that is dependent on fossil fuels. Currently less than 5 percent of the grid in NYS is wind and solar. The Build Public Renewables Act provides a clear pathway to scale up renewable energy and allow us to realize our CLCPA goals. No half measures or shortcuts will solve this. This is an issue of infrastructure. We chose to build a gas-dependent grid so we must choose to build ourselves out of it by building as much renewable energy as we can, as democratically and efficiently as possible. The Build Public Renewables Act provides a pathway to meeting our State’s established goals that is faster, cheaper, and more democratic than reliance on private developers alone. This is why our office supports the BPRA and urge this body to pass it as soon as possible.

While there are a few things New York gets right about energy policy and grid management, our system isn’t moving fast enough. There is more we must do to increase renewables while bringing down prices. In comparison to private sector-led energy development, public authorities like the New York Power Authority (NYPA) can leverage public finance to lower the cost of project development to build renewable energy at scale—which would support initiatives such as the Comptroller’s proposal for Public Solar NYC, an initiative designed to ramp up publicly owned solar energy. The revenues of renewable energy projects should be reinvested into back into our grid, not investors’ pockets.

As we transform our energy system to address the climate crisis, ensure that we prioritize energy affordability for all New Yorkers under the principles of a just transition. BPRA does just that. BPRA supports bringing low-cost energy to the market can brings down the costs of energy for everyone. In fact, NYPA customers already see vastly lower bills than customers of investor-owned utilities.This year’s increase in gas prices has sent working class New Yorkers’ electricity bills surging to extreme, unaffordable highs. Many are still struggling to keep up with their bills.

Affordability of basic utilities has long been a problem, since New Yorkers pay some of the highest rates in the country, and COVID worsened this crisis, leaving even more rate payers in utility debt. Last year, according to the Public Utility law Project, total utility debt in the state hit $2 Billion. We must find ways to protect these rate payers from future gas-dependency caused price spikes. The bill calls for 100 percent renewable power to low- and moderate-income households across New York, totaling approximately one million households and three million New Yorkers, at a rate significantly lower than current utility rates. This would provide a financial lifeline to millions of people across the state.

Finally, the Build Public Renewables Act is projected to bring as many as 50,000 jobs to New York State. These jobs will be required to pay a prevailing wage and utilize project labor agreements, bringing up to $93 billion in additional economic activity to our state. The Act further ensures that NYPA is an active and productive partner with organized labor, setting standards for prevailing wages and project labor agreements, and supporting labor unions’ existing workforce development programs. We need green jobs to be good jobs, and we need this bill to be a model for labor and climate policy nationwide. Seeing as the bill is revenue neutral, passing this bill would be worth its economic benefits alone.

We must work to aggressively invest in the development of new renewables. The Build Public Renewables Act is a common-sense solution for our state, and I urge the state Assembly to pass it as soon as possible.

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