Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation

[Dana7360]

I'm not surprised by this.

I knew that deregulation and privatization was a horrible idea. For many reasons.

What the republicans don't seem to understand is when you privatize it always costs more because there has to be a profit. It always leaves the American consumer with no recourse to when that private company and their greed end up killing people as it did in Texas.

Texans have paid 28 billion dollars more in energy than they would have if they had not deregulated and privatized.

We didn't deregulate privatize in my state. We have only one electricity provider. The Public Utility District. I live in PUD number 1.

We control that energy. We the people hire the heads of the PUD. Not any politician. The heads of PUD have to be elected by the people and have to answer directly to the people.

Not some crony hired by a politician whose only motivation is greed.

The rates can't be increased without asking for the increase and honestly justifying that increase. The increase isn't decided by a greedy private company, the people own it so it's the people who decide if there's an increase.

The result is we have more energy than we use so we sell it for a profit to other states.

We have the second lowest electric rates in the nation.

We also don't have people dying because a greedy private energy company didn't do the right thing and winterize nor do we end up with electric bills in the thousands when there's a spike in electric use.

The people who bought into the deregulation and privatization were duped.

WSJ News Exclusive | Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation

Texas’s deregulated electricity market left millions in the dark last week. For the past 20 years, its consumers have paid more for their electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a WSJ investigation found.

www.wsj.com

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

I'm not surprised by this.

I knew that deregulation and privatization was a horrible idea. For many reasons.

What the republicans don't seem to understand is when you privatize it always costs more because there has to be a profit. It always leaves the American consumer with no recourse to when that private company and their greed end up killing people as it did in Texas.

Texans have paid 28 billion dollars more in energy than they would have if they had not deregulated and privatized.

We didn't deregulate privatize in my state. We have only one electricity provider. The Public Utility District. I live in PUD number 1.

We control that energy. We the people hire the heads of the PUD. Not any politician. The heads of PUD have to be elected by the people and have to answer directly to the people.

Not some crony hired by a politician whose only motivation is greed.

The rates can't be increased without asking for the increase and honestly justifying that increase. The increase isn't decided by a greedy private company, the people own it so it's the people who decide if there's an increase.

The result is we have more energy than we use so we sell it for a profit to other states.

We have the second lowest electric rates in the nation.

We also don't have people dying because a greedy private energy company didn't do the right thing and winterize nor do we end up with electric bills in the thousands when there's a spike in electric use.

The people who bought into the deregulation and privatization were duped.

WSJ News Exclusive | Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation

Texas’s deregulated electricity market left millions in the dark last week. For the past 20 years, its consumers have paid more for their electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a WSJ investigation found.

www.wsj.com

What the republicans don't seem to understand is when you privatize it always costs more because there has to be a profit.

So when government does something, it's cheaper.....because there's no profit?

Any backup for your idea?

 

[theHawk]

I'm not surprised by this.

I knew that deregulation and privatization was a horrible idea. For many reasons.

What the republicans don't seem to understand is when you privatize it always costs more because there has to be a profit. It always leaves the American consumer with no recourse to when that private company and their greed end up killing people as it did in Texas.

Texans have paid 28 billion dollars more in energy than they would have if they had not deregulated and privatized.

We didn't deregulate privatize in my state. We have only one electricity provider. The Public Utility District. I live in PUD number 1.

We control that energy. We the people hire the heads of the PUD. Not any politician. The heads of PUD have to be elected by the people and have to answer directly to the people.

Not some crony hired by a politician whose only motivation is greed.

The rates can't be increased without asking for the increase and honestly justifying that increase. The increase isn't decided by a greedy private company, the people own it so it's the people who decide if there's an increase.

The result is we have more energy than we use so we sell it for a profit to other states.

We have the second lowest electric rates in the nation.

We also don't have people dying because a greedy private energy company didn't do the right thing and winterize nor do we end up with electric bills in the thousands when there's a spike in electric use.

The people who bought into the deregulation and privatization were duped.

WSJ News Exclusive | Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation

Texas’s deregulated electricity market left millions in the dark last week. For the past 20 years, its consumers have paid more for their electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a WSJ investigation found.

www.wsj.com

Already multiple threads on this, and the story debunked.

They are not “deregulated” at all.

 

[rightwinger]

Consumers were offered wonderful rates. I got calls all the time. How can you say no?

But in the fine print there is a catch. You have to pay market rates for energy. If there is a crisis, you have to pay up.

 

[Shelzin]

Actually... According to the companies... It was regulation that stopped them from producing enough electricity so there would be no rolling black outs.

Is it true? I don't know. But it makes sense. There are laws on the books that say how much electricity can be made and how.

Edit: I will happily say that people who bought into Griddy were .... Stupid. Wholesale electricity!!! Yeah... That's great. You are playing the stock market with electricity. That's... Stupid.

 

[DudleySmith]

It was always just a scam; there aren't any more electric lines behind my house than there were 100 years ago for one, and 75% to 90% of the costs are in maintaining transmission lines, not power plants. Only idiots thought 'deregulation' was going to anything but triple the costs and cut services by 70%. Even at that it is still much beter service here than you get in California and New York city, where they lose power all the time, not just once in while during bad weather. I lost power at least once a month when I lived in the Bay Area; I kept a car battery on my patio so I could at least read and have lights on the patio to cook on the grill.

 

[DudleySmith]

Actually... According to the companies... It was regulation that stopped them from producing enough electricity so there would be no rolling black outs.

Is it true? I don't know. But it makes sense. There are laws on the books that say how much electricity can be made and how.

Edit: I will happily say that people who bought into Griddy were .... Stupid. Wholesale electricity!!! Yeah... That's great. You are playing the stock market with electricity. That's... Stupid.

They are of course lying through their teeth. Capital Investment in long term stuff like additional power plants and replacing depreciating equity reduces short term dividends, and besides when anything happens they can just raise prices and then make the govt. pay for the other stuff, like all corporations like to do these days. They're all entitled to criminal illegal alien labor, all the green cards they can print, and exemption from taxes and the owners legal liabilities for anything are nil, thier employees get trained by the state, local, and Fed govts. for free, and many other bennies, like building maquilas in Mexico at American taxpayers' expense. It's along list, and we don't know the half of it. This is why I laugh my ass off at the 'free market' right wingers as hard as I do at left wing deviants and degenerate; they all look alike to me..

 

[Shelzin]

They are of course lying through their teeth. Capital Investment in long term stuff like additional power plants and replacing depreciating equity reduces short term dividends, and besides when anything happens they can just raise prices and then make the govt. pay for the other stuff, like all corporations like to do these days.

Doesn't seem to be the case. I could be wrong. But it has been shown that they were not running 100% capacity. Would running at 100% mean no rolling blackouts? I don't know... But we do know they were not running and producing as much as they could have been.

 

[Dana7360]

Consumers were offered wonderful rates. I got calls all the time. How can you say no?

But in the fine print there is a catch. You have to pay market rates for energy. If there is a crisis, you have to pay up.

They apparently didn't say one of those catches would be left with no lights or heat in sub zero temperatures and people will die.

My state didn't deregulate and privatize.

Yet my state has the second lowest electric rates in the nation.

Seems to me that the exact opposite of what republicans claimed happened.

 

[Care4all]

It was always just a scam; there aren't any more electric lines behind my house than there were 100 years ago for one, and 75% to 90% of the costs are in maintaining transmission lines, not power plants. Only idiots thought 'deregulation' was going to anything but triple the costs and cut services by 70%. Even at that it is still much beter service here than you get in California and New York city, where they lose power all the time, not just once in while during bad weather. I lost power at least once a month when I lived in the Bay Area; I kept a car battery on my patio so I could at least read and have lights on the patio to cook on the grill.

We loose electric a lot up here in the Maine woods/rural.....
How do you use a car battery to hook up lights? Do you attach something to it like an inverter or something? Then plug in to that....?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

I'm not surprised by this.

I knew that deregulation and privatization was a horrible idea. For many reasons.

What the republicans don't seem to understand is when you privatize it always costs more because there has to be a profit. It always leaves the American consumer with no recourse to when that private company and their greed end up killing people as it did in Texas.

Texans have paid 28 billion dollars more in energy than they would have if they had not deregulated and privatized.

We didn't deregulate privatize in my state. We have only one electricity provider. The Public Utility District. I live in PUD number 1.

We control that energy. We the people hire the heads of the PUD. Not any politician. The heads of PUD have to be elected by the people and have to answer directly to the people.

Not some crony hired by a politician whose only motivation is greed.

The rates can't be increased without asking for the increase and honestly justifying that increase. The increase isn't decided by a greedy private company, the people own it so it's the people who decide if there's an increase.

The result is we have more energy than we use so we sell it for a profit to other states.

We have the second lowest electric rates in the nation.

We also don't have people dying because a greedy private energy company didn't do the right thing and winterize nor do we end up with electric bills in the thousands when there's a spike in electric use.

The people who bought into the deregulation and privatization were duped.

WSJ News Exclusive | Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation

Texas’s deregulated electricity market left millions in the dark last week. For the past 20 years, its consumers have paid more for their electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a WSJ investigation found.

www.wsj.com

Deregulation is failed conservative fiscal dogma – reckless, irresponsible, and unwarranted.

 

[initforme]

So the govt doesn't work and profit driven companies are out to stick it to people. Ain't it great?

 

[Shelzin]

Consumers were offered wonderful rates. I got calls all the time. How can you say no?

But in the fine print there is a catch. You have to pay market rates for energy. If there is a crisis, you have to pay up.

They apparently didn't say one of those catches would be left with no lights or heat in sub zero temperatures and people will die.

My state didn't deregulate and privatize.

Yet my state has the second lowest electric rates in the nation.

Seems to me that the exact opposite of what republicans claimed happened.

I'm not interested in identity politics.

But I will happily take interest in how Washington did it's power. It does seem as if it's a better way to go.

Edit: Why does Washington have such high gas prices?

 

[DudleySmith]

It was always just a scam; there aren't any more electric lines behind my house than there were 100 years ago for one, and 75% to 90% of the costs are in maintaining transmission lines, not power plants. Only idiots thought 'deregulation' was going to anything but triple the costs and cut services by 70%. Even at that it is still much beter service here than you get in California and New York city, where they lose power all the time, not just once in while during bad weather. I lost power at least once a month when I lived in the Bay Area; I kept a car battery on my patio so I could at least read and have lights on the patio to cook on the grill.

We loose electric a lot up here in the Maine woods/rural.....
How do you use a car battery to hook up lights? Do you attach something to it like an inverter or something? Then plug in to that....?

they make a lot of 12 volt stuff you can clip on via alligator clips to car batteries; I had 12 volt flourscent work light wands you can get at most auto supply stores, or used to be able to anyway. When it ran down, you just charged it up from your car with jumper cables.

The first black out i used it in had my neighbors in the next apt. complex over come by and asked how I had lights, and that started a fad in the neighborhood. They were Sikhs, and it was nice having them around, as they patroled the streets around them as well as their own complex, and they carried their swords and knives with them, too, and not the ceremonial ones either.

 

[DudleySmith]

So the govt doesn't work and profit driven companies are out to stick it to people. Ain't it great?

They're the same people; in Texas the companies also run the regulatory boards and elect people to the Texas Railroad Commission. Look that agency and its history up for a good time. Its effects are felt all over the country.

 

[Disir]

Republicans blast Obama proposal to sell Tennessee Valley Authority

In a political role reversal, Republicans are blasting President Obama's plan to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority, an icon of the New Deal long targeted by conservatives as an example of government overreach.

www.foxnews.com

Ya..............short term memories.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

My state didn't deregulate and privatize.

Yet my state has the second lowest electric rates in the nation.

That's awesome!!!

What state? How do they do it?

 

[DudleySmith]

Republicans blast Obama proposal to sell Tennessee Valley Authority

In a political role reversal, Republicans are blasting President Obama's plan to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority, an icon of the New Deal long targeted by conservatives as an example of government overreach.

www.foxnews.com

Ya..............short term memories.

President Dwight Eisenhower called TVA "creeping socialism," while President Ronald Reagan criticized it as an example of big government. Republicans from Barry Goldwater to Newt Gingrich have pointed to the TVA as an example of where the private sector could provide services more cheaply and effectively than bureaucrats.

Except that never happens.

 

[Pogo]

I'm not surprised by this.

I knew that deregulation and privatization was a horrible idea. For many reasons.

What the republicans don't seem to understand is when you privatize it always costs more because there has to be a profit. It always leaves the American consumer with no recourse to when that private company and their greed end up killing people as it did in Texas.

Texans have paid 28 billion dollars more in energy than they would have if they had not deregulated and privatized.

We didn't deregulate privatize in my state. We have only one electricity provider. The Public Utility District. I live in PUD number 1.

We control that energy. We the people hire the heads of the PUD. Not any politician. The heads of PUD have to be elected by the people and have to answer directly to the people.

Not some crony hired by a politician whose only motivation is greed.

The rates can't be increased without asking for the increase and honestly justifying that increase. The increase isn't decided by a greedy private company, the people own it so it's the people who decide if there's an increase.

The result is we have more energy than we use so we sell it for a profit to other states.

We have the second lowest electric rates in the nation.

We also don't have people dying because a greedy private energy company didn't do the right thing and winterize nor do we end up with electric bills in the thousands when there's a spike in electric use.

The people who bought into the deregulation and privatization were duped.

WSJ News Exclusive | Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation

Texas’s deregulated electricity market left millions in the dark last week. For the past 20 years, its consumers have paid more for their electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a WSJ investigation found.

www.wsj.com

'Round these parts our electric company is a co-op. And they kick money back to customers.

 

[DudleySmith]

A bit off topic. but Chairman Biden, aka Mr. Green New Deal, sent Texas a bunch of new generators ... all of them diesel powered .... hilarious stuff.