City of Rochester
News Release
Mayor Evans, City Council Call on Public Service
Commission to Investigate RG&E
(Friday, March 24, 2023) – Mayor Malik D. Evans and
Rochester City Council have called on the N.Y. State Public Service Commission
(PSC) to investigate Rochester Gas & Electric Corporation, questioning
their commitment to Rochester. The Mayor and City Council are requesting that
the PSC fund a study to evaluate a municipal takeover of the internationally
owned utility’s regional operations.
“Our community is being failed by RG&E,” said Mayor
Evans and City Council in a letter to PSC Secretary Michelle Phillips. “Please
recognize that we are in a crisis. This frustration is not fleeting—RG&E
has been divesting in our community for a long time. We need the PSC’s
assistance and expertise to review their performance and to consider funding a
study into moving away from RG&E in the near future.”
The letter cites RG&E’s audacious request for rate hikes
amid the rising frustrations with its ongoing billing failures and shrinking
investments in customer service. With cost of living expenses at a crisis
point, especially for communities like Rochester with high rates of poverty,
RG&E’s well-documented failures and skyrocketing energy bills are prompting
increased demands in the Rochester community to conduct a study to municipalize
RG&E.
“We are compelled by the idea of regaining local control of
our public utility, as RG&E’s ownership and interests are now
international,” the letter states. “Yet, we understand this is bigger than the
City of Rochester, since RG&E is failing in nine counties in our region. We
believe that N.Y. State and the PSC should be at the center of these
discussions, and should ultimately fund a study to take over and improve
RG&E’s operations.”
The letter points to the precedent of the State’s pivotal
role in the1980 transition of the Long Island Lighting Co. to a public utility
and suggest that any fines that might result from a PSC investigation into
RG&E could offset the cost of the study.
“So we look to you for guidance on how best to proceed,” the
letter states.
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