NPR: Texas Won't Reduce $16 Billion In Electricity Charges From Winter Storm

[crimsonaudio]

Everything IS bigger in Texas...

In January, Dallas resident Shannon Marrs paid $257 for electricity. But after Texas suffered the worst winter storm in years, Marrs' February electricity bill totaled more than $10,000.

That's because for a period of 32 hours during the deepest freeze of February's winter storm, power companies were paying $9 per kilowatt-hour for electricity — about 75 times higher than the state's average winter costs. Companies passed those costs on to consumers.

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.

Texas Won't Reduce $16 Billion In Electricity Charges From Winter Storm

 

[NationalTitles18]

Everything IS bigger in Texas...



Texas Won't Reduce $16 Billion In Electricity Charges From Winter Storm

to include hubris and stupidity.

 

[crimsonaudio]

"What do we want?"

"DEREGULATION!"

"When do we want it?"

"RIGHT AFTER THE NEXT FEDERAL BAILOUT!"

 

[NationalTitles18]

"What do we want?"

"DEREGULATION!"

"When do we want it?"

"RIGHT AFTER THE NEXT FEDERAL BAILOUT!"

 

[Crimson1967]

Sounds like a free market setting the price. Isn’t that what they wanted?

 

[chanson78]

So this is when the invisible hand is bad? I thought that was unpossible.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

This won’t end well for anybody.

 

[Padreruf]

This is the sort of insensitivity that creates revolutions...

 

[JDCrimson]

Well this may be avenue to confiscate some of the forthcoming stimulus...

Jerry Jones is licking his chops.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

This is the sort of insensitivity that creates revolutions...

Agreed. When I heard about this, I immediately thought of the palace at Versailles.

Strange train of thought, I know, but here’s why: That palace is so opulent, and so big — you could literally have a boat race in the reflecting pool in the back — and so generally over-the-top, that it brought home to me the sentiment that led to the French Revolution.

Keep in mind, it’s all these things by today’s standards...I can’t imagine how it must have seemed by the standards of 230 years ago.

I finally understood how people could get so alienated that they overthrow the government with violence.

Now, I don’t think a godamighty power bill that a state largely brought on itself rises to the level of what the French Royal Family was doing to the people of France. But I do see a parallel at a much lesser degree.

 

[chanson78]

To me this parallels the Flint water crisis fairly well. While the details of the public failing is different and the magnitude of those affected is different, fundamentally it is how decisions of those who run public works affect the consumers of those public works.

Granted the water crisis in Flint didn't immediately result in 16K/month utility bills, but the fix up is estimated to cost 216M.

Fixing Flint's contaminated water system could cost $216m, report says

A bruising litany of infrastructure repairs would happen over the next several decades – with $80m needed to remove about 10,000 lead pipes across the city

www.theguardian.com

Ultimately it is going to come down to whether anyone is prosecuted for this. I will be very surprised if this is settled in any other way than a fine and the company does not admit any fault.

 

[MattinBama]

This won’t end well for anybody.

Except perhaps for the job security of bankruptcy trustees.

 

[tlockwood]

I once got a bill from the IRS for $10,000. I got it on a Friday afternoon which left the whole weekend to worry about how I messed up our taxes so bad that the IRS wanted an additional 40+% of my income. It ended up being an error on their part, but that weekend took years off my life!

I could not imagine what it would be like to open your power bill expecting a small increase but finding the bill was that big! And that I actually owed it. And there was no chance to have it "pardoned." How in the world would you come up with that kind of money?????

 

[uafanataum]

I once got a bill from the IRS for $10,000. I got it on a Friday afternoon which left the whole weekend to worry about how I messed up our taxes so bad that the IRS wanted an additional 40+% of my income. It ended up being an error on their part, but that weekend took years off my life!

I could not imagine what it would be like to open your power bill expecting a small increase but finding the bill was that big! And that I actually owed it. And there was no chance to have it "pardoned." How in the world would you come up with that kind of money?????

Bootstraps?

 

[Its On A Slab]

And just like that, Texas libertarians stopped wanting to emulate Somalia.

 

[92tide]

And just like that, Texas libertarians stopped wanting to emulate Somalia.

just wait until they find out how the free market deals with racism.

 

[TexasBama]

And just like that, Texas libertarians stopped wanting to emulate Somalia.

 

[Jon]

and now it is too hot for the ERCOT Grid

'Unplanned' outages hit Texas power plants in soaring temperatures

One official said he was "deeply concerned" about the number of offline plants.

www.nbcnews.com

regulations are bad m'kay

 

[TexasBama]

and now it is too hot for the ERCOT Grid

'Unplanned' outages hit Texas power plants in soaring temperatures

One official said he was "deeply concerned" about the number of offline plants.

www.nbcnews.com

regulations are bad m'kay

we just need a free market solution.

 

[92tide]

we just need a free market solution.

the invisible fist will provide all of the necessary comfort