Power bill due: Send it to Texas Lege
With the storm behind us, and power and water restored, the most immediate issue before local and state leaders is addressing billing.
As Texas thawed, news reports surfaced of massive bills hitting Texans. The New York Times reported on a man who received a nearly $17,000 bill from the company Griddy, a small provider out of Houston that charges customers wholesale rates. Other Griddy customers reported bills in the thousands of dollars, even in instances when they kept the thermostat down and most of the lights off.
At the local level, CPS Energy officials have said they are still assessing the financial impact of the arctic blast that left 370,000 San Antonians freezing in the dark, an electrical crisis that morphed into a water crisis. Some three dozen Texans have died because of the storm and corresponding power outages. In recent statements, CPS Energy officials have said the full cost of the storm “has not yet been fully calculated” while also raising the possibility of financing the spike in prices over the span of years to mitigate the financial hit.
That would prevent bill shock, but it’s cold comfort for ratepayers. More pointed are actions from the Public Utility Commission and comments from Gov. Greg Abbott and Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Nirenberg has said there will be “hell to pay” if the surge in natural gas prices is passed on to ratepayers and has said the the bill should end up with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, and the Texas Legislature.
“We’ll stand against any attempt to saddle residents with the cost of this energy disaster,” the mayor tweeted.
Abbott has reiterated this sentiment and said addressing the power outage is the top priority for the state — and he appears to be striking a much better tone in leadership after initially scoring political points about renewable energy on Fox News last week.
The state’s Public Utility Commission has rightfully issued two orders to halt disconnects and stop sending customers bills “until we work through issues of how we are going to financially manage the situation we are in,” commission Chair Deann Walker said.
No Texan should be saddled with enormous bills because ERCOT failed in its management of supply and demand of power during this freeze, and state lawmakers failed to mandate the proper regulatory framework to mitigate disaster: weatherizing all types of energy producers and natural gas pipelines to protect against extreme climate events, and reserving capacity to ensure supply when demand surges.
As state Rep. Lyle Larson, a San Antonio Republican, has said, “The state government of Texas has to intervene to protect Texans from utility-rate hikes. ... It is our fault we did not weatherize our powergeneration capacity. The rainy day fund should be used to offset increased energy cost for ratepayers.” We agree. Tap the rainy day fund and cover ratepayers and municipally owned utilities such as CPS Energy.
As the fallout for this entirely preventable tragedy unfolds, we must pause to dwell on an obvious hypocrisy. Texas politicians love to champion the unbridled free market as a keystone to our status as a business-friendly state, and they often grouse about the burdens of regulation, but now, government is rightfully poised to intervene.
The reality is these surges in billing are a reflection of an unbridled free market: There was peak demand for power and limited supply, particularly of natural gas; so, costs spiked. Regulation has an important place in our lives. Proper regulation would have kept Texans warm and safe during this freeze. Now the bill has come due.
There will be more extreme weather as the climate continues to change. Cover these bills, but let’s get the regulatory framework right in advance of future storms.