Deregulation Through The Back Door

Several years ago, power companies supplying electricity to many parts of Texas were deregulated by the Texas legislature. The Republican legislature promised Texans that the move would result in more competition and lower prices for consumers. They could not have been more wrong!

Before the deregulation went into effect, Texas has some of the lowest consumer electricity rates in the nation. Currently, Texas electrical rates are among the highest in the nation. And it's not because electrical rates have gone down in the other states. The much-vaunted Republican myth of competitive rates simply didn't happen. Instead, the power companies have taken advantage of deregulation to exorbitantly raise their rates.

But there are still a few parts of Texas where electrical rates are still regulated. In the Panhandle, the rates are regulated by the cities. The rates for consumers cannot be raised without city approval. In fact, Amarillo and several other Panhandle cities have just denied a rate increase to Xcel Energy.

In Austin, however, the power companies are trying to pull off an end run around regulation. American Electric Power Company is currently in talks with the Republican-dominated Public Utilities Commission (PUC). They want the PUC to approve "alternative rate-making methodologies" to let the power companies recover "certain costs".

In plain english, this would allow the companies to get around regulations by tacking on extra charges above the approved rate. Amarillo city-staffers say, "There is a significant risk that the adoption of any of the proposed truncated, rate-review mechanisms will be just 'stage one' of an effort to completely eliminate effective regulation of the rates of monopoly electric utilities."

I would go further. It would be the end of regulation, because the company can always make sure the "certain costs" will jack up the bill to whatever rate they want to charge, regardless of what the cities want. Several Panhandle cities are preparing to hire an attorney to fight the new measures. I hope they do.

These power companies cannot be allowed to achieve electric deregulation through the back door after it has been denied at the front door.

A Little Utility Company Thievery

Remember when the Republicans deregulated the electric companies? They told us then that we would see much lower prices, because competition would result in the companies trying to undercut each other.

Most of us doubted that would happen, and we have been proven to be right. Rather than compete, all of the companies have been raising their prices, and Texas now has some of the highest energy prices in the nation.

Take my own situation as an example. I live in a small two-bedroom apartment, and last year our largest electric bill was about $200. That seemed like a lot, but we did keep the air conditioner thermostat at 68 or below. This year, we decided we would save some money.

We put the new energy efficient light bulbs all over the house, and turned off every light we weren't using. We also got a new washer and dryer that were much more efficient than the old ones. Then we put heavy curtains on all the windows and turned the thermostat up to 72.

I would have thought that all those things together would have resulted in using less kilowatt hours. Evidently, I was wrong. Xcel Energy says we are using more hours, and this is with a very moderate summer here in the Panhandle. We've only had one 100 degree day, and most days have been under 95. That's very temperate for a Texas summer.

How has all this affected my electric bill? The bills for the last three months added together is about $920. That's an average of over $300 a month! That means that after all the energy-saving measures we have taken, our electric bill has still risen by an average of 50% this summer!

Xcel Energy, and the other utility companies, owe their Republican flunkies a big debt of gratitude. The Republicans have allowed them to decimate the paychecks of ordinary Texans.

The Republicans, both state and federal, have been an unmitigated disaster for my household. Even though I got a small raise last year, after the higher gas prices, higher food prices and higher energy costs, I am finding it harder than ever to make ends meet.

Am I better off than I was 4-8 years ago? Hell NO!