FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 22, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Queens residents rally for public power
BY ANG LICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDOSCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
QNS
More than three dozen Queens residents
gathered at Rufus King Park in Jamaica
to launch NYC Democratic Socialists of
America’s (NYC-DSA) campaign for “Public
Power” on Saturday, April 10.
NYC-DSA’s “Public Power” campaign
aims to put New York’s energy system in
control of the public rather than corporations
like Con Edison and National Grid.
To do that, the coalition is advocating for
two bills, the N.Y. Build Public Renewables
Act (NYPBRA) and the N.Y. Utility
Democracy Act (NYUDA).
Saturday’s rally — one of several that took
place in Brooklyn and the Bronx — featured
multiple speakers, including DSA member
Nolen Scruggs, City Council District 23
candidate Jaslin Kaur and a representative
of City Council District 22 candidate Tiff any
Cabán, as well as Rockaway Revolution organizer
Marva Kerwin and local Black Lives
Matter activist Larry Malcolm Smith Jr.
Scruggs, a resident of Ozone Park, said
that having a publicly owned energy
system would lead to a more accountable
and fair power distribution.
“We’re here today because for too
long, our government
Marva Kerwin speaks during the rally.
Queens residents attend the NYC-DSA Public Power rally at Rufus King Park
NYC’s #1 Source for Political & Election News
Photos by Gabriele Holtermann
in Jamaica.
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and elected
offi cials have prioritized
the pockets
and profi ts of
millionaires and
billionaires over
the energy needs
of every day New
Yorkers,” Scruggs
said. “With public
power that would
come to an end.”
The NYBPRA
would require the
New York Public
Authority to fully
transition to renewable
energy
and expand its scope to sell clean energy
directly to residential customers, banning
for-profi t rates and shut-off s. Th e bill is
primarily sponsored by Brooklyn Assemblyman
Robert Carroll, and currently
co-sponsored by several Queens Assembly
members including Zohran Mamdani,
Catalina Cruz, Ron Kim, Brain Barnwell,
Alicia Hyndman and Khaleel Anderson.
Th e NYUDA, sponsored by Astoria
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and
Brooklyn state Senator Julia Salazar,
would require all of the state’s utilities to
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transition into public ownership within
two years and create democratically elected
boards to oversee distribution operations.
Mamdani, who wasn’t able to attend the
rally as he was traveling to Albany, said that
private energy companies can currently
“prioritize their profi ts over our lives.”
“In Astoria, this looks like Con Ed rate
hikes and additional fees for not switching
to smart meters. It looks like NRG trying to
build more fracked gas infrastructure when
our neighbors have said that our lungs
and our planet don’t need any more dirty
energy. It looks like
energy shut-off s in
the dead of winter for
our neighbors,” Mamdani
told QNS. “Enough
is enough. It’s time for a
democratized energy system
that’s accountable to
us —
that’s why I’m proud
to support public power.”
At Saturday’s event,
Kerwin, a Far Rockaway
resident, said her home
was ravaged by Hurricane
Sandy, leaving many like
her and her family homeless due to power
outages.
“If we need something to live, the cost
should not be on our backs,” Kerwin
said. “We have to have the courage to ask
for more. We deserve maintenance over
profi ts. We deserve proper infrastructure.
We deserve our power to work whether it’s
cold, hot or stormy. I should not live in a
brownout home.”
Kaur said that while City Council District
23, currently represented by Barry
Grodenchik, received a perfect score on
the New York League of Conservation Voters’s
Environmental Scorecard, equitable
treatment doesn’t trickle down to every
person in the district.
“As soon as you cross Hillside Avenue
and Jamaica Avenue, you see a diff erent
reality for the way people in my district live,
and those are the people we’re fi ghting for,”
Kaur said.
Advocates also point to corporate utility
companies’ use of fossil fuels and how it’s
led to damaging climate eff ects like extreme
heat waves and storms that trigger
blackouts, and how the COVID-19 pandemic
has exacerbated the state’s indebted
utilities system.
Kaur said she doesn’t want to continue
talking about expensive Con Ed bills; she
wants a solution, “and that is public power.”
“We get that with a Green New Deal for
public housing, making sure these buildings
are climate-resilient, hiring union
labor, hiring local and making sure that
our city can continue to have a future that
is certain, livable and green because that is
what we deserve,” Kaur said. “Our public
utilities are not a commodity, and neither
are our people.”
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