On Tuesday, thanks to socialist and progressive organizing, New York enacted the biggest state-level climate bill ever, one that is destined to become a model for governments everywhere. Socialists and their allies can also claim credit for significant improvements to New York City’s public transit system. The budget that passed with these policies is otherwise an awful austerity budget across a range of issues, but these wins are significant and demonstrate the power of socialist organizing on popular, urgent issues.

After a four-year fight, the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), the beginning of a Green New Deal in New York, is a reality. This bill uses a New Deal model of public ownership to advance renewable energy and ensure that it remains a public good, affordable to New Yorkers and a source of tens of thousands of good, unionized, green jobs.

BPRA includes labor protections — written by the state AFL-CIO and resisted by the governor — as well as an Office of Just Transition to ensure that fossil fuel workers can move into good green energy jobs. BPRA also improves public health and attacks environmental racism by shutting down toxic fracked gas power plants in black and brown communities. It ensures that New York will have access to the funds offered by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and that the state will be able to use that federal funding to create lasting structures for public green energy.