The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) is sticking it to Texans. Many Texans were received monthly electric bills in excess of $10,000 following last month's devastating winter storm which crippled Texas' power grid. The five figure electric bills compounded the devastation.
Unfortunately, PUCT has basically told Texans to PUCT off. They are stuck with the bills:
Texans facing those unexpected bills were hoping that Texas' utility regulator would retroactively reduce the electricity market prices. But on Friday, the Public Utility Commission of Texas chose to let the charges stand.
It might seem like retroactively reducing the charges would be good for consumers, said Texas PUC Chairman Arthur D'Andrea during Friday's public meeting. But, he argued, that reflects a "simplistic" view of how Texas power markets work.
"We just see the tip of the iceberg," D'Andrea said. "You don't know who you're hurting. You think you're protecting the consumer and turns out you're bankrupting a co-op or a city. And so it's dangerous, after something is run, to go around and redo it."
Gee, how many Texans are going to have file for bankruptcy because they can't pay their electric bill through no fault of their own?
A decent society doesn't allow something like this to happen. Of course, it could be said that a decent society would see fit to winterize their energy grid so people don't lose power and be deprived of clean running water. But something this egregious simply cannot stand.
The question is who will step in and say enough? The Biden Administration? Congress? Unfortunately, a $1,400 stimulus check won't be nearly enough to relieve this sort of burden. So will it be somebody like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban? Even that wouldn't be enough. Cuban has a net worth of just over $4 billion. But Texans owe $16 billion in electricity bills.
So what is to be done?
No comments:
Post a Comment