(Photo: Peoples Power March in 2021 to launch the Rochester for Energy Democracy Campaign)

On November 21, 2022, Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E) will hold small private meetings with members of Rochester City Council rather than answering to the public. RG&E's request to meet with small groups of City Councilmembers comes in the midst of widespread customer reports of numerous billing errors and ineffective customer service, as well as increasing public momentum to partner with City Council to take over and replace RG&E with a public utility that will better serve ratepayers. As RG&E failed to meet even the bare minimum standards providing quality heat and electric services, the company's shareholders extracted $94.4 million in profits from our community in 2021 alone. Rather than provide real answers and solutions for their failures, RG&E is filing to raise rates on customers by nearly 20% and holding private meetings with our City's leadership.

If RG&E is interested in actually improving the service we pay them expensive rates to provide, the company owes transparency, answers, and results to the rate-paying public and the Public Service Commission of New York State. Instead, RG&E is choosing to meet privately with City Council, which does not regulate RG&E, but does have the power to take over the company and turn it into a public utility via referendum. 

Join us for a rally and press conference to protest RG&E's private meetings with City Council and demand that RG&E answer to ratepayers. RG&E is a company that residents pay to provide a basic human need: heat and electricity. Our community is owed tranparency and accountability from RG&E, and RG&E is long overdue for responding to the needs of the public. 

RSVP below! 

(This press conference is led by Rochester for Energy Democracy: Metro Justice's campaign to take over and replace RG&E with public utility that is locally owned and gives ratepayers a real say. A public utility will be more affordable, accountable to ratepayers, climate-conscious, and reinvest our money back in our community. Learn more at metrojustice.org/red).