New York Governor Kathy Hochul is Today's Champion of Public Power
With some recent news, it's worth reflecting on this fact, even in the presence of the environmental left's advocacy of building public renewables.
Earlier this week, the New York Power Authority announced a major staffing update regarding its new nuclear project: they’ve hired Todd Josifovski, formerly project director for neighboring public power utility Ontario Power Generation’s major Darlington Nuclear Refurbishment, to be the executive in charge of the project. They’ve also got former Nuclear Regulatory Committee Chair Christopher Hansen as a consultant.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul in June directed the state’s public power authority to boldly go where the private sector has not gone before (in 50 years) and build a new nuclear plant in the state. NYPA’s new nuclear project embodies what I’ve called the governor’s “atomic abundance.” Her goal is to advance the decarbonization of the state’s electricity grid — recognizing that nuclear is exactly a “dispatchable emissions-free resource” that the state’s grid operator has spent years demanding be deployed — while also unlocking new manufacturing development Upstate, such as the power-hungry Micron semiconductor facility.
But not everyone is excited about NYPA’s new nuclear project. The state’s environmental groups have largely opposed it. To them, nuclear is a distraction from the primary task of deploying renewables in concert with the state’s landmark climate law the CLCPA, an initiative that combined the common disregard for execution by these groups and by former Governor Andrew Cuomo. (Nuclear will be a critical part of the law’s requirement of 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040, but the groups and Cuomo didn’t carve out any particular requirements for it like they did renewable technologies.)
Because of Hochul’s recent approval of a major new gas pipeline into the state — a very worthwhile bargain with Trump for offshore wind, Charles Komanoff argues — a coalition of environmental groups are now backing Hochul’s gubernatorial challenger. “Governor Hochul has been, on issue after issue, on the side of the real estate industry, Wall Street, and polluters,” argues Pete Sikora of New York Communities for Change to The American Prospect, “Antonio Delgado, on the other hand, is running as an economic populist, and he is embracing the kind of FDR-like vision of government as a force for good that can make people’s lives better.” A new Deadline Hochul campaign from that group and various others seeks to bring the star power of Bill McKibben and Mark Ruffalo to the challenge against Hochul.
I won’t argue that expanding public power utilities is the most important issue in politics, but the climate left should certainly consider its significance while they warn about energy affordability and talk up FDR. And on this Kathy Hochul is a clear standout among politicians across the United States today.
The Case for Hochul as Public Power Champion
In my Jacobin article this summer I’ve already argued that Hochul stands above all other governors today by directing public investment in and development of new nuclear power.
It’s not just about the nuclear project though. Gov. Hochul must be recognized as a champion of public power for the expansion of NYPA to “build public renewables,” as the environmental left campaign demanded.
Many of you will ask “isn’t Zohran Mamdani, or DSA in general, the champion of public power?” For the past few years I have consistently credited the environmental left coalition led by DSA for campaigning on the crucial idea of unlocking the state power authority to build public renewables. Absolutely they deserve a W for that.
But throw a stone and you’ll hit a journalist, academic, or other writer who doesn’t understand the details of that campaign’s legislation and just how much the Hochul Admin transformed it for the better. Most of them write as shorthand that the Build Public Renewables Act passed; precious few using the shorthand realize how significantly that failed legislation differed from what became law.
Here’s a list of the major improvements the Hochul Administration made to building public renewables as part of NYPA’s expanded authorities in the 2023-2024 budget law:
Throwing out the destructive and unrealistic requirement that NYPA only own and operate renewable resources. This would have required a privatization of the various fossil resources owned and managed by NYPA for the state’s grid; they’re not retiring by the impossible 2031 deadline the left sought. (These are not the peakers but the 24/7 gas plants most of the left doesn’t realize exists.)
Throwing out the requirement that NYC NGOs get a say in the electric reliability need of NYPA’s critical peaker plants. Truly, this was a destructive measure.
Throwing out the funding and other decision making power for climate NGOs.
Adding the authority to arbitrarily sell and market power from new renewables at wholesale. This in particular was the crucial blocker for NYPA being a renewables developer. Nothing ever stopped them from building and owning renewables before; they just couldn’t sell the power to bring in new revenues.
Scrapping the magical 50% retail price cut that NYPA would have been required to offer low and moderate income customers (NYPA has never sold retail power to residential customers anyway) in favor of a program of bill credits to distribute some revenues from renewables projects.
Simplifying multiple processes of reporting their progress and collecting community input into a single annual one. Though this hasn’t stopped the left from trying to legislate yet another such process in the past year.
Readers of Public Power Review should be familiar with all of the above already. As far as I know, I’m still the only person presenting this comparison for the general public.
NYPA has been set up by the Hochul Administration to carry out this endeavor — to build state capacity in renewables development from scratch — has done a tremendous job. It’s a largely untold story because very few journalists pay much attention to the details here and because the Hochul Administration and NYPA both have remained largely silent when it comes to taking public credit, leaving it to the left to “own” the execution at the same time they dismiss it entirely.
Back to Zohran Mamdani and DSA. I recently wrote for Heatmap the case for the New York City mayor-elect to endorse NYPA’s big public power expansion into nuclear. So far, he and the DSA advocates of revitalizing NYPA have been completely silent. The Public Power NY coalition that unites DSA and environmental groups, who championed the Build Public Renewables Act, hasn’t just been silent; they’ve actively opposed the nuclear project along with all the other environmental groups. Meanwhile they avoid any responsibility to shepherd NYPA’s foray into renewables, opting instead to consistently argue “make number go up! or else!”
There are countless laudable developments across public power utilities nationwide. If you work at a public power utility and are reading this, know that you have my respect (and my ear!) But none are being spearheaded so forcefully by an elected leader, integrated into a larger political vision. For all these reasons, Gov. Kathy Hochul is indeed the champion of public power today.