Oppose RG&E Rate Increase: Rochester for Energy Democracy

Opposing RG&E's Proposed Rate Hike!!

Sessions are at 1pm or 6pm, with a rally at 5:30pm (outside City Hall) before the 2nd hearing

The greed just doesn’t stop. In May 2025, the last installment of RGE's PREVIOUS 34% rate hike went into effect. Despite the recent audit showing RG&E and its multinational owners can not be trusted with our money, they are now, immediately after their last increase, asking for ANOTHER 34% increase. At the same time, they have the audacity to say we should also raise their rate of profit AGAIN, this time to 10%!  If this rate case is allowed to go forward, a further 50,000 RG&E customers will fall into energy poverty, paying a higher and higher rate of their incomes to this unaccountable profiteering monopoly. Throughout this all, they continue to chronically misbill us, neglect grid maintenance, and use our money to expand fossil fuel infrastructure.

Rochester says ENOUGH! Join us TO SPEAK at the rate case hearings, at City Hall, either at 1pm or 6pm, and especially, join us for a rally and protest at 5:30pm before the 6pm hearing! Make sure our demand to stop the hikes is heard LOUD and clear!Comments are limited to 3 minutes, and you can sign up in person to speak immediately before the hearing. 

You can also join a webinar on preparing comments with the Climate Solutions Accelerator on Thur 9/25 from 6-7:30 here, a Reddit AMA with the Accelerator on Tuesday 9/23, and we'll be adding a guide to this page in the coming days. Stayed tuned, spread the word, plan to show up to oppose the state rubber-stamping Iberdrola’s latest scheme to raise their profits on our backs!

You can also fill out a public comment opposing the rate increase here, sharing your experience and how this hike would affect you! 

To join this event, please RSVP.

More Context: 

This is more money coming out of our pockets for what? For RG&E to line shareholders' pockets, all while they chronically misbill, saddle us with surprise bills, exorbitant rates, terrible customer service, and exploit our communities. Our communities are hurting under RG&E’s predatory practices, including the Shut Off Crisis that seems to be intricately connected to the ongoing misbilling and accountability crises of the utility. The numbers are startling: 12,217 homes and 1,196 businesses were shut off in 2024, for a total of 13,413 shut offs. This number is triple the shut offs of 2023, and is an all-time high in recent times. At the same time, new profit numbers for 2024 show that profits - just a few years ago $90 million, rose to $107 million in 2023 and are now $122 million in 2024. RG&E is having their best year ever and still asks for 34% more, while Rochester’s energy burden (the proportion of income for energy) is third highest in the country, with 29% of all homes, or 44% of Black and Latino homes, paying between 6-25% of their total income on energy. An updated report from ACEEE shows that a quarter of low income households in Rochester pay 21% or more of their income to RG&E. The foreign corporation that owns RG&E is draining our community of resources while continuing to invest in expanding fossil fuel infrastructure, and continuing to lobby against a transition to renewable energy. As a result, we all pay more than we should in energy bills while the continued use of fossil fuels pushes us towards catastrophic environmental damage. How much longer will we allow RG&E and their Spanish-owned parent company Iberdrola, to exploit us? This latest rate case, in which RGE is requesting to charge a further 34% on top of the 34% rate hike they just completed in May, is a crime against every paying customer that we must not let go unchallenged!

Organizer: Metro Justice