Metro Justice's Rochester for Energy Democracy (RED) Campaign asked every member of the Monroe County Legislature and Rochester City Council how they would vote to allocate funds for, and commission, an implementation study this spring to take over and replace RG&E in our area with a public utility. 

RG&E’s parent companies Avangrid and Iberdrola leech over $100 million in profits out of our region every year while residents pay expensive bills for terrible service. No more paying RG&E expensive bills for failure! It’s time for a local public utility that is affordable, responsive to our needs, renewable, and invests our money into our local economy and workforce. We can have a locally owned and community-controlled utility where ratepayers, local elected Board members, local experts, and local utility workers make decisions about our energy, instead of an international corporation that raises rates and cuts service to increase their shareholders' profits.

NY state law states that with an implementation study and a positive referendum, RG&E would be forced to sell to the public. We asked every Monroe County Legislator and Rochester City Councilmember if they would take the first step: an implementation study jointly funded between Monroe County and the City of Rochester, and commissioned in partnership with Metro Justice. Specifically, we asked the Monroe County Legislature if they will allocate up to $1 million, and asked Rochester City Council if the will allocate up to $500 thousand, for a study this spring. 

Join us at a press conference to release our Rochester for Energy Democracy report card, learn how your representatives responded, and what you can do to make sure County and City politicians commission the study so that we can all have a more just and equitable utility for generations to come. 

RSVP below!