The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Rochester Gas & Electric Co. for allegedly threatening and attempting to bribe the University of Rochester and for its anti-competitive power supply contract with the school.
The Justice Department called the suit an "effort to loosen the stranglehold" the utility has over the university providing electricity to Rochester.
The lawsuit, filed June 24 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, claims that Rochester Gas & Electric tried to coerce the university into abandoning plans to build a cogeneration plant. The suit alleges Rochester Gas threatened to cut off the university's research grants and offered financial rewards totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars for conservation programs.