For Immediate Release: June 7th, 2023
Contact: press@socialists.nyc
Protect Workers. Dump Driscoll.
The Governor cannot delay a safe climate for working class New Yorkers
NEW YORK, NY – Last month, DSA won the biggest Green New Deal victory in US history, passing the Build Public Renewables Act. While the establishment told us to settle for the Governor’s sabotaged version, we refused to accept anything less than the full law: one that makes New York a national model in tackling the climate crisis, and building a future we can be proud of.
Today shows why we cannot accept any watering down of climate action. As Kathy Hochul warns that global warming-accelerated fires make it unsafe to go outside, a UPS warehouse worker reminded her that, for most working New Yorkers, “staying inside isn’t possible.” Many are walking off their jobs, risking their livelihoods to protect their physical safety.
The faster we unleash BPRA’s mandate to build public, 100% renewable energy, the faster we reduce the frequency of days like today. The faster we lower record childhood asthma rates in New York’s Black and brown communities. The faster we stop working class jobs from becoming daily health risks.
Instead, the Governor is making a last, desperate push to slow it down, by appointing Justin Driscoll as President of the New York Power Authority. Driscoll is wildly unsuited and unqualified for the task at hand. He’s a former fossil fuel lobbyist. A registered Republican, the party of open climate denial. A man just revealed to have spent years defending systemic racial discrimination at NYPA. And who fought against the kind of union labor and just transition mandates for workers that BPRA now guarantees.
Driscoll cannot stop the mandate our statewide movement has won. But why should we accept even giving him the chance to try? As New Yorkers build a new wave of labor organizing, as UPS Teamsters prepare for a potential country-shaking strike for demands like guaranteed cooling and air filtration to keep drivers safe on days like these, as workers organize to end unjust firings for protecting themselves in moments exactly like this, we demand the State Senate reject this right wing enemy of our future the same way they rejected Hector LaSalle.
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ABOUT NYC-DSA: New York City Democratic Socialists is the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America—the largest socialist organization in the United States with over 85,000 members. NYC-DSA is run by its 6,000+ members and activists who are working together to build a democratic socialist organization in the five boroughs.