(Reuters) – Texas elected officials said the state should help pay for some of the shocking electricity bills sent to residents after the devastating and deadly winter storm that caused widespread blackouts.
Texas has a very unusual deregulated energy market that allows consumers to choose from a number of competing electricity suppliers.
Some suppliers sell electricity at wholesale prices that increase in sync with demand, which skyrocketed as a record freeze reached a state unaccustomed to extreme cold, killing at least two dozen people and eliminating power to more than 4 million. people at their peak; some 30,000 people were still without power on Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.
As a result, some jeans that were still able to turn on lights or keep the fridge running were found with $ 5,000 bills for just a five-day period, according to photos of the bills posted on social media by consumers. angry.
Dallas Morning News said a vendor offering a wholesale tariff plan had urged its thousands of customers to switch suppliers before the storm to avoid high prices, but many found it would take too long to switch suppliers.
“The bill should go to the state of Texas,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in an interview with CBS News Sunday. “When they receive these exorbitant electricity bills and have to pay for their homes, repair them, they should have no responsibility.”
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price told CBS that both the state and federal governments should be expected to help with the bills.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who was forced to interrupt a vacation trip with his family to Cancun’s Mexican beach after public outrage, also distanced himself from the free market system he had previously praised.
“This is wrong,” Cruz wrote on Twitter. “No power company should get any losses due to a natural disaster, and jeans should not be attacked by ridiculous tariff increases due to last week’s energy weakness. State and local regulators should act quickly to prevent this injustice.
Abbott convened an emergency meeting of state lawmakers on Saturday to discuss the issue, and said in a statement that they had a responsibility to ensure the jeans “don’t get caught up with skyrocketing energy bills.”
On Sunday, the governor told reporters that the Texas Utilities Commission will order power companies to stop sending electricity bills to customers. The commission also issues a temporary moratorium on disconnection for non-payment, Abbott said.
Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed civil investigation lawsuits against power companies over outages, their emergency plans and prices, saying the companies “severely mistreated.” the meteorological emergency.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday approved a major disaster statement for Texas that makes available to federal funding people affected by the storm, including help repairing homes and temporary housing and low-income loans cost.
All power plants were back online this weekend and electricity had been restored in most homes as the weather returned to normal, but concerns about water supply remained. and millions of jeans were advised to boil water before using it. Houston officials said city water was safe to use without boiling as of Sunday.
Linda So reports in Washington and Jonathan Allen in New York; Edited by Daniel Wallis