Con Ed is the monopoly utility for New York City, charging exorbitantly high delivery rates that have increased year after year with no pushback from the NYS Public Service Commission. They claim these increases are for clean energy investments when instead we see rollbacks in investment and the expansion of failing fossil fuel infrastructure.

The Con Ed corporation makes billions in profits while millions of New Yorkers struggle to pay their utility bills. 30% are considered energy burdened and millions have had their utilities shut off for not affording their bill. In the richest city, in the richest country in the history of the world, the working class should not have to decide between keeping the refrigerator full or the refrigerator running.

That’s why we need a new system for setting energy and utility rates, one that doesn’t disproportionately burden residential customers and prioritizes profits for the corporate elite. Publicizing Con Ed or removing profit margins from the rate setting process is how we get there.

Public Power is the solution to the energy affordability crisis and our north star. Corporate utilities will always prioritize profit over people. Heat and electricity are not optional things, but necessary things to live a dignified life, and cost should not be a restrictive factor to live in our city.

Therefore Public Power through increased clean energy investments by the publicly owned NY Power Authority is the solution. Renewable energy infrastructure is the proven affordability solution for energy needs, dollar for dollar, providing more energy for New Yorkers into the foreseeable future. That is why we fully stand by the implementation of the Build Public Renewables Act, which increases the mandate for renewable supply in the New York Power Authority.

Dying Nuclear plants for AI Data centers, and privatized gas pipelines will only lead to a greater cost burden for consumers, and a continued dependence on pollution that drives the climate crisis. Investments should explicitly go towards energy grid retrofitting, energy storage technology, and public renewables.

Cap and Invest, as well as other state funding mechanisms is how we get it done. Polluting fossil fuel corporations have made billions in profits off the backs, health, and lives of New Yorkers . This legislation along similar packages like the Climate Superfund Act (CLCPA), cap the greenhouse gas emissions of polluting corporations and demands they pay into a fund that goes towards climate crisis solutions.

Essentially, a first of its kind system of reparations to fund clean energy infrastructure, utility assistance programs, green jobs, and other services to create the climate resilient communities we need to withstand the climate crisis.

AI Datacenters are rapidly being brought online in our communities by taking over our politics and building them out with minimal regulation and oversight. It’s up to us to fight back. The demand they place on the energy grid and utility customers is undeniable, as the cost of capacity increases and grid enhancements ultimately fall on the average utility customer, NOT data center developer or AI company.

While we are proud to welcome the country’s first datacenter moratorium that prohibits hyperscale datacenters over 50MW, we eagerly await the signing of stronger legislation that regulates the implementation of hyperscale data centers, that currently sits on the governor’s desk.

The NYS legislature has passed a bill that bars projects using 20MW or more — and requires at least a third of data center energy use come from clean energy. The bill would mandate environmental impact studies on water and energy usage to protect New Yorkers from resource-hungry AI data centers. 

It is crucial that we protect New Yorkers from all hyperscale datacenters that rely on dirty energy, pollute our water, and raise our utility bills.

Our priority is New Yorkers, not big tech billionaires.