After Wednesday’s campaign launch in Battery Park, I asked Mike
Paulson, associate director of the Brooklyn-based Sane Energy Project which
aims “to replace fracked gas infrastructure with 100% democratically
controlled, renewable energy,” how New York could avoid the problems currently
bedeviling renewables in neighboring states. “It’s disappointing and concerning
that these projects are in jeopardy,” he said of the private windfarms in New
England and New Jersey, noting that they would have brought jobs and climate
relief to those regions. But their failure, he emphasized, “points to the important
role for public power.”
Private developers, Paulson and other public power advocates
point out, must make a profit for their shareholders, which means every market
problem—inflation, supply chain issues, interest rates—is a setback. “They’re
not obligated to think about our climate targets, “ said Paulson, “or about how
many kids went to the emergency
room with asthma. With public power, we can take a more responsible
approach.”
But turning BPRA into reality will still take work. The
biggest obstacle to passing BPRA, and the reason it took four years, is the
fossil fuel industry. The Public Power coalition expects those interests to try
to slow or derail the adoption of public power. They’re optimistic—organizers
point out that the passage of BPRA demonstrated that popular support can
sometimes defeat the relentless pressure of corporate campaign contributions.
“We are up against some of the most monied lobbyists,” Kristen Gonzalez, a Assemblywoman
who successfully campaigned on BPRA last year and attended the launch of the
new campaign on Wednesday, told me. But, she emphasized, the coalition has
demonstrated its ability to organize and defeat them.