![]() ![]() They see the campaign in the vein of movements like the Fight for 15, which doubled New York’s minimum wage after years of protests and strikes. Local public power organizers have their eyes on the long game. And like that fight, it has divided unions: The service workers’ union 1199SEIU is on board with the Rochester campaign, but the union representing RG&E electricians is opposed. The campaign has captured some of the momentum of a wider public power fight that recently gave new, state-owned renewables a foothold in the clean energy transition. While those regulators have opened an investigation into billing errors from RG&E and its Hudson Valley partner, New York State Electric & Gas, for many Rochester customers, the investigation isn’t enough.Ī proposed rate hike has added fuel to the fire. Regulators deem many of the high bills erroneous, but residents have still attempted to pay them. But many residents have run out of patience with their grid’s private owners - and the existing mechanisms for oversight. The company has made its opposition to public power clear, while issuing a string of mea culpas over the billing issues and promising to fix them with the help of more than 200 new hires by the end of this year. If it were to pass, RG&E would likely fight it in court. If experts recommend municipalization, as such a public takeover is called, residents will still need to vote to approve it, and it’s hard to tell how popular the proposal would be once it’s put to the full city or county. The study itself would just be the first step. The county executive has so far refused the state has kept mum. The city funding relies on the county or state to take the lead in commissioning and paying for the study, estimated to cost $1.5 million in total. It was a significant milestone for the nearly four-year public power campaign, but the proposal still faces an uphill battle. Last Tuesday, three months after the county meeting, the Rochester City Council unanimously committed $500,000 to study whether, and how, a public overhaul would work. “The only way to do something about it is to take back control of the grid and our ratepayer dollars by turning RG&E into a public utility.” “ RG&E uses our money to enrich the shareholders of its parent companies instead of investing in a reliable grid for residents,” said Mohini Sharma of the local group Metro Justice, which is leading the public power fight. In the third-largest city in New York, an ascendant public power campaign proposes that the municipality buy out the utility - a subsidiary of the holding company Avangrid, which is itself a subsidiary of the Spanish energy giant Iberdrola. One after the other said they wanted lawmakers to take matters into their own hands - with a public takeover. Residents at the March meeting said they were tired of pleading with regulators for relief. ![]()
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