On Friday, the Texas Public Utilities Commission noted that it had no intention of investing $ 16 billion in electrical overloads that an independent market monitor had pointed out as a result of the state’s weekly blackouts.
Commission President Arthur C. D’Andrea said it was too difficult to repeat energy markets and entailed too many uncertainties.
“It’s impossible to develop that kind of egg,” he said.
Andrea said there were so many private hedges and transactions outside the commission’s view that taking a step designed to help consumers could have unintended consequences. “You think you’re protecting the consumer and it turns out you’re failing a cooperative or a city,” he said.
The commission met Friday morning to consider a recommendation from its independent market monitor, which concluded that Texas kept artificially high wholesale prices for 33 hours longer than guaranteed during a winter freeze last month, which generate excess consumer spending by $ 16 billion.