Biff_Poindexter
Diamond Member
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‘We’re in trouble’: Electric rates in Texas have surged over 70% as summer kicks in
Natural gas prices have soared, and gas-generation plants produce the most electricity in the state -- and set the market rate.
www.dallasnews.com
"There’s no escaping rising oil prices. They’ve driven up the cost of gasoline, and the higher expense registers every time people fill up the tank. The price of natural gas has increased even more than crude oil, but many consumers may not have noticed. They will soon enough — in higher electric bills. How much higher? Over 70% higher than a year ago for residential customers in Texas’ competitive market. It also appears to be the highest average rate since Texas deregulated electricity over two decades ago. “We’ve never seen prices this high,” said Tim Morstad, associate state director for AARP Texas. “There’s going to be some real sticker shock here.” Consumers will experience the increase at different times, depending on when their current electricity contract expires. While some cities, such as Austin and San Antonio, have regulated public utilities, the rest of the state operates under a competitive market.
“Texas has this whole mythology around cheap gas and prosperity, and those days are clearly over,” said Alison Silverstein, an energy consultant who formerly worked with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Public Utility Commission of Texas. “We’re in trouble as consumers,” Silverstein said. “The most effective thing we can do is try to use less electricity. That means using automated thermostats, energy efficiency measures and the like. “Wind and solar are saving our wallets,” Silverstein said, and more renewable projects, including storage batteries, are in the pipeline. Wind and solar power are providing a growing share of electricity, accounting for a combined 38% of generating capacity on ERCOT this year."
As if Biden's corrupt and dangerous energy policies didn't cause Texas enough damage during 2021's winter storms; they are trying to destroy our power grid again this year...this is why it is vital that Texas totally fights back against these Democrat Commie regulations and totally deregulate themselves...if they could just de-couple themselves completely and create their own power grid and allow the energy providers to basically regulate themselves, that would be even better..
The solution is market competition --- Texas just needs more free-market competition and instead of a 70% increase in rates, there would be a 70% decrease..because everyone knows, regulations are the reason energy rates are higher..Energy producers would gladly lower rates if there wasn't all of this Democrat regulation going on....thankfully, Texas was smart enough to start relying more on renewable energy as of late...which is totally cool if Conservatives can take credit for it....but when Libs try to push that renewable energy crap on us, that is socialist communism and must be rejected at every opportunity.
