Redo power system

Re: “Storm merits probe,” Your Turn, Monday:

A letter writer says CPS Energy is the victim of the price-gouging energy companies that charged the grid several hundred times the usual price for natural gas with ERCOT'S approval during the storm.

It must be noted that CPS Energy has benefited from this free market system during summer heat waves by selling its excess energy (generated from coal) to the grid at many times the usual rate. Such sales to the grid by CPS have resulted in huge unbudgeted windfalls, which is why CPS can pay up to $13 million in annual bonuses to its public employees.

Brazos Electric, the state's largest power cooperative, filed for bankruptcy Monday after receiving an unpayable $2.1 billion bill from ERCOT. The city of San

Antonio, acting through CPS Energy, has disclosed the $1 billion energy bill that it generated through its utility during the storm.

Will the state or federal government bail us out somehow? Will the energy customers of San Antonio have to pay the bills over many years? What happens if another weather disaster strikes?

A fundamental change of the Texas and local power system is in order.

Darby Riley