Thread by @NYCDSA_Climate

@croselund @DemSocialists First of all, thank you for engaging in good faith! These are all really great questions.

So, how did we arrive at the conclusion that public ownership should be the first step to decarbonizing & democratizing the grid?

Short answer: lived experience & theory of change.
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@croselund @DemSocialists Long answer:

This campaign started with us trying to work within the current system. We became parties in the Con Ed & National Grid rate cases to fight for lower rates and an end to the expansion of gas infrastructure.

And we learned that the PSC is completely ineffective 2/

@croselund @DemSocialists and unaccountable. They essentially told us certain parties have more of a voice in the process than others, and the entire proceeding was just designed to argue over how kuch profit Con Ed could make, not to actually grapple with our or @SaneEnergy's concerns about safety or 3/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy climate. They rubber-stamped the rate hike and gas infrastructure—even AFTER Con Ed:
-blacked out 70,000 customers because they had refused to spend the $350M they got in the last rate case on relay system upgrades and let it break instead
-admitted they would pass the cost of 4/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy stranded assets onto ratepayers for $200M of new gas infrastructure if they have to shut it down early to comply with the CLCPA (which they will)
-and National Grid created a fake gas moratorium as a scare tactic, literally holding our energy hostage to push through a 5/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy dangerous pipeline we don't even need (they lied; gas demand is flat). bit.ly/panicreport
Politicians have ordered them to reconnect people, but they refuse. They also manipulated data regarding methane emissions and refuse to fix leaks, caused explosions, union bust, etc 6/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy So, let's take your suggestion. Leave them private; change cost of service regulation to performance based incentives; break them up; ban gas; introduce more transparency & accountability.

This would help, don't get us wrong. But, it would be extremely difficult and wouldn't 7/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy solve a lot of the problems inherent to a private monopoly for a necessary service.

If we tried to decarbonize on the scale needed while leaving them private, rates would soar, and ratepayers would be stuck with paying for all their stranded assets. So, why don't we mitigate 8/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy that by socializing the rewards of utilities, not just the costs? They extract $1B in profits per year. That's $1B/year we could redirect to sustainability, affordability, and reliability instead. It's a necessity service that everyone uses—why pay a middleman to provide it? 9/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy Why try to create a complex system of carrots and sticks that they will inevitably will lobby against, find loopholes in, and overturn if Republicans are in power, which will ultimately make rates even more unaffordable for the working class? Why not in incentivize them to do 10/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy the right thing by having them be directly controlled by and accountable to the people who directly benefit from them doing the right thing—workers, ratepayers, and environmental justice communities?

Public utilities are 14% more affordable on average—the cost savings and 11/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy direct accountability to the public are its biggest positives imo. A public utility is onlg as good as the public that is controlling it. But at least the levers of power will be in our hands. At least if we try to get them to decarbonize, we know they won't lobby, lie, 12/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy manipulate data, hold our energy hostage, and resist as fiercely as they do now.

#PublicPower will also end energy shutoffs—it's important to guarantee renewable heat and energy as a human right in this age of climate crisis, much like we do with water. 13/

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy The level of regulation that would be needed to ensure they are doing the right thing in terms of safety, reliability, sustainability, labor rights, etc. would essentially involve having a team of regulators that dictates their every move. Then what are we paying management for?

@croselund @DemSocialists @SaneEnergy TL;DR we view public power as a means to an end.

That end is all of the things you described (incentivizing maintenance, decarbonizing without too much of a fight or rate hikes, introducing more transparency & accountability directly) + building working class power.