BUILD PUBLIC RENEWABLES ACT – PART 2

We doubled New York’s public renewable buildout

35,000%

INCREASE IN SOCIAL REACH
FROM BASELINE

5,000+

PUBLIC COMMENTS
IN LESS THAN 60 DAYS (TWICE!)

130+

EARNED MEDIA HITS

2x

GIGAWATTS OF PUBLIC RENEWABLES... AND COUNTING

The Story

When New York passed the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), it was hailed as "the biggest Green Deal victory in US history." But we knew it was only step one. The law alone wouldn’t build a single wind turbine on its own — the real power of the BPRA would be determined by forcing New York Power Authority’s strategic plan to include 15 gigawatts of public renewables by 2030.

The Challenge

Implementation campaigns are notoriously hard to pull off: low public awareness, minimal press interest, and timelines designed to exhaust activists. We knew that NYPA’s opaque bureaucratic process — controlled by a Republican CEO with a track record of opposing public renewables — could be where the BPRA went to die. So 18 months after passage, Greenpill returned to the fight to keep NYPA accountable.

How We Won

We turned bureaucratic implementation into a public fight that NYPA couldn’t escape. Through our full-spectrum media campaign, we were able to frame the fight with a clear demand, making a technical planning document into a political story and turning up public pressure. In other words, we had NYPA playing defense from day one.

When NYPA introduced their plan to build just 3.5 gigawatts, we made the gap between their intentions and our goal of 15 gigawatts the headline. Under sustained pressure, NYPA doubled the proposal to 7 gigawatts, a direct result of the public scrutiny and mobilization powered by our campaign.

CAMPAIGN IDENTITY

Our campaign wasn’t just political; it was historical, harkening back to NYPA’s roots. Created by FDR while he was governor of New York, NYPA served as a prototype for the New Deal and its public power projects. To carry the New Deal spirit into today, we drew visual inspiration from designers of the era like Lester Beall, and revived its radical core concept: We can do big things — and they can be good for the people.

We framed the campaign around a single, action-oriented message: New York must lead the way. Our identity cut through the doom spiral caused by Trump’s re-election with forward-looking defiance and positioned the BPRA as an immediate, urgent fight against Trump's backwards agenda. We motivated a massive, nation-leading climate win that was not symbolic, hypothetical, or dependent on D.C. — proving that public power could still deliver. 

CAMPAIGN ROLLOUT

Our full-spectrum media campaign included messaging strategy, social media, and press outreach, all timed alongside the 2-month public input process. Through our social and influencer amplification, we drove roughly 800k impressions — a 35,000% increase from baseline. Elected officials, including Zohran Mamdani and Chi Ossé, helped expand our reach beyond the base. We generated 40 earned media hits during the central time period, including articles in the New York Times and The Nation, and 130+ total earned media hits over the year, ensuring coverage framed the story on our terms: NYPA was underdelivering on a clear legal and existential mandate.

PUBLIC POWER

Perhaps most significantly, we centered the campaign on a single, high-leverage action: submitting public comments demanding 15 GW of public renewables. In just 60 days, 5,000 people submitted comments — an unprecedented volume for a brand-new state agency process. And to NYPA’s dismay, we heavily promoted their in-person public hearings, packing them with hundreds of people in NYC and across the state.

The Win

We didn’t just defend a bill. We turned a post-legislative exercise into a public reckoning. NYPA was forced to abandon its initial plan and publicly double its commitment — proving that implementation campaigns can be fought (and won) if treated as a political battlefield rather than a bureaucratic footnote.

And then we kept charging.

ONGOING ACCOUNTABILITY

The campaign was only the beginning. In December 2025, we helped pass the Public Renewables Transparency Act, a targeted bill that requires NYPA implementation no longer happens behind closed doors. NYPA is now required to: 

• Publish regular progress reports annually 
  
• Launch a public-facing dashboard to track
• renewable buildout
  
• Join the state’s energy planning board to coordinate with other agencies
• Hold hearings in locations accessible by public transit

The Win

In 2026, we further expanded our fight towards increasing funding for Public Renewawables in the New York State Budget. Working with legislative allies like Sarahana Shrestha and Claire Valdez and in tandem with our other major budget battle, we successfully won $100 million in NYPA funding, which, thanks to NYPA's financial leverage as a public authority, will be worth billions.

Shortly after, NYPA announced it would review an additional 5 GW of reneawble projects getting us even closer to our 15 GW goal.

What's next?

After playing a key role in electing a public power champion as Mayor of New York City, we're kicking open the door to a whole new world of possbilities.