Sarahana Shrestha

@sarahana.bsky.social 🌹 New York State Assemblymember District 103. Taking over our utility, Central Hudson. Re-elect in 2026!

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

Without public ownership, we won’t address energy affordability and we won’t get our aging grid to the 21st century. Our bill to replace Central Hudson Gas & Electric will start saving millions in Year 1!

Read about it in the NY Times.

https://t.co/RNK5m26Cvc

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

Solidarity with IBEW workers striking at PECO, an investor-owned utility in Philadelphia owned by Exelon, the country's largest electric parent company by revenue. https://t.co/IEYg29NkbN

[Sandeep Vaheesan @sandeepvaheesan]

Public ownership of the monopolistic grid is the pragmatic choice. Reliable service at cost should trump easy returns for shareholders.

Around one in four power customers in the United States already get their electricity from a publicly owned utility or electric cooperative.

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

Because under capitalism, investors can own and profit from an energy utility, and the PSC thinks the rates must balance “affordability concerns against utility shareholders’ constitutional right to earn a reasonable return on investment.”

[Hon. Vickie Paladino @VickieforNYC]

Why doesn't New York have a stable energy grid when we pay the highest utility costs in the nation?

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

Lol, no. (1) A fire department doesn't depend on investors looking to get a return on their investment, so its existence doesn't depend on capitalism 2) socialists are for universal programs and against means-testing

[Remember God @WriteInSatan]

@waltermasterson Capitalism is the fire company existing. Socialism is the fire company not putting out your fire, because you're too rich.

[Walter Masterson @waltermasterson]

Socialism is the fire department putting out your fire.

Capitalism is the insurance company denying your claim.

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

@CTDude3 @ConEdison https://t.co/S1lcRza4n2

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

The public should indeed takeover the grid that’s owned, monopolized, and undermined by corporate shareholders. Blackrock is the top institutional holder of @ConEdison

[Mercedes Schlapp @mercedesschlapp]

Mamdani should use the $7 million to improve the electric grid.

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

@CTDude3 @ConEdison That’s your money growing from ratepayers overpaying for a grid that doesn’t cut it

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

@CTDude3 @ConEdison Yes and those institutions do it all for free purely because of their good hearts and generosity

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

I’ll say the same thing I said when CHPE was being discussed several years ago: We should be building public renewable projects across the state instead of relying so heavily on Canadian hydro.

[Mark D. Levine @MarkLevineNYC]

At the worst possible moment, the brand new Champlain-Hudson power line bringing hydro power from Quebec to NYC has shut off.

That means we are running now on overwhelmingly carbon-emitting, expensive sources. Reminder of how far away we are from the resilient green grid we need.

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

Maybe they should give them up then, if it matters so little to them.

[GTRxMan 🇺🇸 @gtrxman]

@sarahana @ConEdison Those companies don't actually own the shares. They're held in custody for the various funds, accounts and plans they manage, and investors that actually own them. Nobody is holding a significant investment in a utility as a proprietary position.

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

ConEd rates are set to ensure customers cover 100% of the costs (operating, capital, financing, taxes)—PLUS PROFITS. In other words, the financial risk the shareholders take is basically zero.

INVESTOR-OWNED UTILITIES ARE A SCAM!

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

The CEO of ConEd, Tim Cawley, is paid a base salary of $1.4 million, and makes 116 times the median employee’s pay https://t.co/y8zftgb2UE

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

If shareholders are making a profit from it, it’s not a public service. It’s an investment vehicle masking itself as public service and benefitting from advantages typically not available to the private market, such as a legal monopoly and more or less guaranteed profits.

[Crime In NYC @Crime_In_NYC]

➡️ If you see a critical public service that was intelligently and successfully developed over decades, and which millions benefit from, grab it and wreck it.

[Ben Blippenstein @BenBlippenstein]

The thing owned by con Edison? The government should do what with it? No that’s communism or something right?

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

Glad you asked https://t.co/GiKoqGkH6D

[Not1word @Not1word1]

@sarahana @DemSocialists Where are YOU going to get these "renewables"? Snap your fingers and make them appear? What skills or qualifications do you have to supply these 15GW?

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

Albany and Washington are doubling down on fossil fuels at a time when we're facing some of the deadliest heat in years. We demand 15 GW of public renewables to power our grid, lower our utility bills, and create thousands of green union jobs!

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

A heat dome will intensify over the Eastern U.S. this week, pushing temperatures into triple digits and likely breaking records across three dozen states, according to NOAA. https://t.co/5Qh5rzf9dF

[Mid-Hudson Valley DSA @mhvdsa]

We are building a socialist movement that wins across the country! A better world IS possible.➡️ https://t.co/JZFDniBJIB

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

The slightly longer answer is: DSA work is not limited to electoral or legislative organizing.

[Sarahana Shrestha @sarahana]

100% false

[ettingermentum @ettingermentum]

100%. Not only do you not have the kind of influence and credibility with voters to take out incumbents without a Mayor Zohran, but you don’t even know which incumbents are vulnerable at all without him running!