Burnam Seeks To Rein In Electric Costs

Well, Rep. Lon Burnam is at it again - fighting for us ordinary Texans. This time he is seeking to rein in TXU's exorbitant charges for electricity.

The national average for the cost of electricity to the consumer is 10.2 cents per kilowatt/hour. Meanwhile, TXU is charging 15 cents per kilowatt/hour as its standard rate. Does it make any sense that an energy-rich state like Texas must pay such high rates?

I have to think that one reason for the ridiculously high rate is the enormous salaries they currently pay their executives - over $50 million a year to their CEO. In addition he gets to use the company jet as his private plane. And that doesn't even count the hundreds of millions paid to their other executives.

Burnam's bill would attack this problem head-on. HB 1937 would mandate that any electric company that charges its customers more than 125% of the national average, must pay its executives minimum wage. Yes, he said minimum wage! I guarantee you that if TXU executives are paid minimum wage, they will quickly lower costs to the consumer to restore their enormous salaries.

The bill doesn't say the company can't pay a ridiculously high salary to its CEO. It just says they can't gouge their customers to do it. He does allow them one out. They could keep paying their executives hundreds of millions of dollars, as long as they put an equal amount of money into the System Benefit Fund, which helps low-income Texans pay their power bills.

Burnam says, "It's time for Texas' electric companies to act more responsibly. It is simply unconscionable to pay a CEO over $50 million in a year when low-income people are struggling with all-time highs on their electric bills. The Legislature could send a clear message to TXU's new owners that the state of Texas will not tolerate this kind of corporate greed.

The deal is not done. And it may not ever be. Two smaller buyouts of utilities were voted down by state commissions in the last few years.

For now, TXU is still a publicly traded company that took advantage of hurricanes to raise electric rates to unprecedented levels. They could have lowered those prices, but they instead chose to reap the profits and pay John Wilder over $50,000,000.

TXU is a poster boy for corporate excess. They need to be reined in."

I know there's little or no chance of this bill passing. Most of our state officials are too busy kissing corporate ass to worry about ordinary Texans. They have been bought and paid for by corporate interests.

But it's still a good idea.