Opinion: Our private energy system is failing. The public can save it.

Solar developers are on the verge of canceling more than 20 major renewable energy projects in New York – enough to power 2 million households. This loss of cheap clean energy couldn’t  come at a worse time: more than a million New Yorkers are over two months behind on their electric and gas bills, reckless wars have exacerbated the volatility of fossil fuel prices and our grid’s reliance on natural gas is driving bills even higher. 

The answer is clear: to deliver an affordability agenda, New York must move off fossil fuels as soon as possible – and the only way to meet this goal is to plan our energy system around the needs of the public, not the needs of profiteers.

By design, the private sector is able to build renewables only if it makes them a healthy profit. However, thanks to Trump’s tariffs, global inflation, expensive interconnection fees and supply chain issues, renewable buildout has become increasingly unprofitable. As dire as this situation may sound, we only need to look at our own history to see that here in New York, we have a common sensical answer: public power. Just as then-Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt created the publicly-owned New York Power Authority to protect the state’s hydropower from speculators and provide some of the cheapest electricity in the state back in 1931, we can build an abundance of cheap renewables today by eliminating the constraints of profits and leveraging the advantages of public ownership.

Thanks to the Build Public Renewables Act, won through years of organizing, New York state already has the legal authority to build and own renewable energy, including the ability to rescue failing private projects – and to do so with union labor. The tool exists. Now, as legislators confront a failing energy system, we just need to use it! 

With the benefits of public power, we can accelerate our transition away from fossil fuels, reform renewable energy planning and get back on track to meet our climate goals. At the same time we will lower utility bills through the REACH program, create 20,000 to 30,000 green union jobs and shut down the polluting peaker plants that are poisoning our communities. 

Last year, the state budget allocated $200 million for NYPA to double its portfolio of public renewable projects – a massive return on investment that means more benefits for New Yorkers. This year, an additional $200 million would move us closer to the 15 GW of public renewables we need by 2030, demonstrating how NYPA can make every public dollar go further because it does not have to deliver profits to shareholders. 

The private sector has had its chance. It has shown us, repeatedly and unmistakably, that it will not build the renewables we need, and it will certainly not do so on the timeline science dictates because the workings of the private market prioritize profits, not public need. Solar, for example, is too cheap and too efficient to generate windfall profits. What benefits the public does not benefit shareholders. 

The most essential role of the government is to step in on behalf of the public and fulfill the needs the markets cannot. At this time, that need is a just energy transition that is key to an affordable agenda, and building public renewables is our path forward.