Opinion: During an Oil Crisis, Build Public Renewables

“The more we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, the more stable our energy prices will be. The more we cut pollution, the more we protect New Yorkers from the costs of disease and climate disaster.”

Queens is the world’s borough, and from here we see how the fight for fossil fuels is destroying our world on so many levels. Skyrocketing costs force families to choose between rent, food, and electricity—all to enrich utility, gas and oil companies. Rockets launched by Donald Trump’s military kill family members abroad in the fight for dominance over oil-rich regions. And when that oil is burned, its carbon pollution heats the planet and threatens the stability of life itself.

Only renewable energy can save our wallets, our families, and our world. And as corporations compete to raise prices, cancel renewables, and work with Gov. Kathy Hochul and Donald Trump to shred climate standards entirely, we know only public renewables will do the job.

The public sector has never been more essential in building out the renewable energy we need. Instead of using public coffers to restrict access to electricity in Gaza or Cuba, we can use the power of the state to build public renewable energy resources to protect households from price spikes and blackouts all while cutting pollution and combatting the climate crisis that fuels life-threatening extreme weather disasters. New York has a unique opportunity to chart a future that is not only affordable but also sustainable. 

The last time the U.S. suffered through an oil crisis of this magnitude was during the 1970s oil embargo. That crisis led directly to the creation of the U.S. Department of Energy, born from a publicly funded mandate to develop alternative energy technologies that wouldn’t be impacted by fuel shortages or reckless wars. 

The resulting technologies, which include solar panels, wind turbines, energy storage, and geothermal engineering, have long-since matured. Today, 91 percent of new renewable projects are cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives. 

Here in New York, we should be accelerating our own investment in public renewable deployment. We have the means to do it: the New York Power Authority (NYPA), one of the largest state-owned utilities in the country, is authorized to construct renewable energy projects. They can do so by raising capital through the sale of green bonds, making the cost of borrowing much cheaper than the private sector.

Renewables get even cheaper when they’re built, owned, and operated by the state. The rest of the world knows this. Global policymakers are accelerating investment in renewable energy. China is deploying state-owned renewables at an exponential rate, with 210 gigawatts of solar installed during the first half of 2025 alone. That’s enough to power 150 million homes. According to Goldman Sachs, China is better prepared to handle the present oil shock than the U.S., despite having no domestic oil production of their own.

Yet Gov. Hochul is leaning into Trump-like narratives about the cost of renewables in her attempts to roll back the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Under her leadership NYPA has committed to building just 5.5 gigawatts of renewable energy, far less than the minimum of 15 GW that New York desperately needs.

Now is not the moment to back away from climate action. The more public renewable energy projects we build, the more we can directly lower New Yorkers’ energy bills through NYPA’s REACH program. The more we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, the more stable our energy prices will be. The more we cut pollution, the more we protect New Yorkers from the costs of disease and climate disaster. The only ones who stand to lose are the fossil fuel companies that have been lobbying Hochul to stop this transition. 

In times of crisis, we need leaders who prioritize people over profits. Tethering New Yorkers to the toxic fossil fuels driving unaffordable bills, imperialist wars, and climate catastrophe means casting our wallets and our futures into the flames. But with public renewables, we can pry back a livable future from Trump’s oil- and blood-soaked hands. 

Wind doesn’t spike because of a war.
Solar cannot be blockaded in the Strait of Hormuz.
Battery storage doesn’t answer to OPEC.

Gov. Hochul: New Yorkers cannot wait, build public renewables.

Aber Kawas is a community organizer and democratic socialist running for New York State Senate District 12.