Urgent Action Rochester Energy Democracy
Did you know that we can vote out the foreign-owned, for-profit corporation that owns and controls Rochester Gas and Electric? RG&E and their foreign owners continue to overcharge and fail our community without accountability. The solution is a tried and true one: a non-profit, locally owned, public utility.
Initiating an implementation study at the county level is our crucial first step toward achieving a public utility that works for local residents instead of distant shareholders. The future of a public utility study hinges on support from County Executive Adam Bello and his administration.
The lobby against public power includes the Head of the Chamber of Commerce, Bob Duffy, who is paid over $200,000 a year to serve on the board of RG&E’s parent company. With the recent roll-out of this pro-RGE, Chamber of Commerce backed, business-insider lobby group aimed at stopping public power, we are forced to ask our County Representatives, "whose side are you on?"
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Mass Rally at RG&E for a Public Utility!
April 05, 2024 at 5:30pm - 7pm
RG&E
180 S Clinton Ave
Rochester, NY 14604
United States
Google map and directions
Save the date and plan to join the crowd demanding that the Monroe County Legislature fund the Feasability Study. Read about the press conference below.
Metro Justice and Labor Call on Adam Bello to Support Monroe Residents Over Business-Insider Lobby
link to video of the press conference
Metro Justice and Rochester-area Labor leaders held a press conference this morning to announce the re-introduction of legislation for a public utility study in the Monroe County Legislature, and to urge County Executive Adam Bello to support it!
The introduction of legislation is a critical victory for the effort to bring RG&E in Monroe County under public ownership, so that all county residents benefit from the savings, transparency, and community control that having a public utility entails.
We need Adam Bello to side with residents instead of business insiders and corporate front groups for RG&E like the Chamber of Commerce and Upstate United.
Read our full press release here! Then, check out and share our Twitter and Instagram posts of a who's who of CEOs, business lobbyists, and anti-union trade organizations opposing public power!
In Solidarity,
Mohini Sharma
Organizing Director Metro Justice. https://www.metrojustice.org/
Additional documents: Here is a condensed summary of a letter Metro Justice sent to the County Legislature and Bello Administration refuting the Bello Administration’s points against doing a RG&E takeover study. Here is the full, researched and cited letter.
Last Friday, the Rochester Beacon published an opinion piece by David Cay Johnston in support of replacing RG&E with a public, not-for-profit, locally owned utility! Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who teaches at Syracuse University College of Law.