13-06-2025
Metro Justice and allies rally at City Hall against RG&E Thursday
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — On Thursday, members of Metro Justice and the Rochester for Energy Democracy (RED) Campaign gathered at Rochester City Hall to rally against Rochester Gas & Electric.
Organizers said the rally was held to call out the RG&E audit and the company's connection to the Chamber of Commerce.
Metro Justice members said the audit shows dramatic security and compliance concerns, in addition to a lack of planning and leadership. Demonstrators said they want the City Council and Mayor Malik Evans' administration to use reserved funds to commission a Phase 1 study to replace RG&E with a public utility.
Monroe County and the Mayor's Office have previously refused to commit to doing a study due to the cost.
It was revealed on Thursday morning that RG&E has failed again to meet the requirements of customer service standards by the New York State Public Service Commission. They will now be required to pay a $9.8 million fine.
News 8 spoke to both RG&E and Metro Justice at the rally on Thursday.
'This notion of government-controlled power would be terrible for the people of Rochester, it would result in exorbitant costs for things like property taxes. It would increase, I mean, the cost associated with buying out the infrastructure would be really difficult for people here in the city. It would take away vital services the city has,' Michael Baggerman, communications manager for RG&E said of Metro Justice's ask.
'The audit was honestly extremely shocking; it is even worse than we thought. There's all the things we knew about all of the like billing errors, the customer service, tjeu're cooking their books, but also a huge amount of negligence putting customers in danger with gas leaks, and cybersecurity, lack of cyber security, but also really that they don't actually even plan at the utility level,' said campaign and policy coordinator of Metro Justice, Dr. Michi Wenderlich.
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