If you’re feeling despondent about the current political landscape, take heart from this good news about real progress sparked, at least in part, by the PSC’s Environmental Justice Working Group (EJWG), with huge support from the whole union and Public Power NY (PPNY).
For quite some time, the EJWG was searching for some meaningful environmental change on CUNY campuses. We all know that CUNY buildings are falling apart, burdened with erratic and ineffective HVAC systems, leaky roofs, mold, and ancient, fossil-fueled systems. The health of our faculty, staff, students and nearby communities is harmed daily by poor air quality loaded with carbon dioxide. We knew we needed to decarbonize our campus buildings, but how?
A Decarbonize CUNY event at LaGuardia Community College last year. (Credit: Paul Frangipane)
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
Luckily, we New Yorkers collectively own the New York Power Authority (NYPA), founded in the 1930s by then-Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt to provide energy to our public buildings, including CUNY, SUNY and the public schools. In our mission to improve our campuses and get them off fossil fuels, we teamed up with Public Power NY (PPNY), an environmental justice advocacy group advancing a massive shift away from fossil fuels and to renewable energy, specifically through the NYPA.
Our union endorsed PPNY’s bill, the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), passed by the New York State Legislature and signed in 2023 by the governor in only two legislative cycles. It requires the NYPA to fill the gap left by private corporate renewable energy companies in reaching NY State climate goals of 70% renewable energy by 2040 and 100% by 2050. Spoiler alert: The private corporations are not following through. NYSUT endorsed the PSC’s resolution to support the BPRA and was the first state union to do so, thus breaking the ice, helping to bring the labor movement into the fight. The promise of 25,000 new union jobs coming out of the BPRA and NYPA’s development of renewable energy across the state was key to all this strong labor support. The AFT followed suit last July, supporting the decarbonization of all public schools, colleges, universities and hospitals, an effort sparked by the PSC’s EJWG and advanced by the newly formed national AFT Environmental and Climate Justice Caucus.
PUBLIC GATHERINGS
Speaking of expanded participation, 10 of the CUNY campuses organized Decarbonize CUNY town halls in the fall of 2024, creating broad-based information and perspectives about the need for dramatic expansion of renewable energy. At these town halls, faculty members joined students and facilities administrators in collectively issuing a call for more investment in clean infrastructure on our campuses.
In November, the PSC and PPNY turned out close to 500 people to a NYPA public hearing at John Jay College, holding a joyous rally beforehand, and then helped to get close to 6,000 online testimonies to the NYPA urging a broad expansion of publicly-owned renewable energy on our campuses. We were able to push the NYPA to double their initial proposal of three gigawatts of renewable energy to six gigawatts, but of course we need much, much more to keep our campuses safe and minimize harm to the planet. As action to mitigate the climate emergency is rolled back on a federal level, it’s up to progressive states like New York to step up and take dramatic action.
We learned that teaming up with a strong and capable advocacy group – PPNY – could advance and focus our local environmental justice work on our campuses and bring more CUNY members into the effort. After lots of pressure on Governor Hochul and work on the part of CUNY’s Office of Sustainability, the governor announced an additional $50 million for CUNY and $100 million for SUNY campuses.
ORGANIZING CONTINUES
Our organizing continues, again with the PSC leading the statewide labor movement for public power to decarbonize public buildings. At our request, NYSUT’s board of directors has agreed to support the PSC’s resolution to encourage more union locals to participate in local coalitions organizing for public power to decarbonize our schools and campuses. We expect that vote to take place at the June NYSUT board meeting. With NYSUT’s support, we had a successful Environmental Justice Caucus meeting at the May NYSUT Representative Assembly, co-sponsored by the Environmental Justice groups of the PSC and UFT. NYSUT delegates from across the state attended and agreed to join their local environmental and decarbonization coalitions, expanding climate action across the state.
We hope these efforts will yield a more powerful push from all over New York State. We know our allies across the state, in NYSUT and in PPNY, will be much more effective working together, creating shared strategies to protect our schools, campuses and communities, and we will do our part to slow down the process of climate change in every way we can.
Our campuses, union and statewide coalitions provide powerful ways forward.
Nancy Romer is a professor emerita of psychology at Brooklyn College. Ashley Dawson is a distinguished professor of English at the College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center.
