Abbott's also saying that the state will force power plants to weatherize, so they're prepared for the next storm. And yesterday, the Public Utilities Commission temporarily blocked companies from sending out bills or shutting off customers' power for nonpayment. Governor Greg Abbott says no one should have to pay these exorbitant bills. So there will be hearings looking into the issue this week. INSKEEP: Well, is the state trying to help now?ĬONNELLY: Yes. And therefore, you know, all these theories like that we will shop for the cheapest and best plan for ourselves - they don't play out. And so a lot of our economic decisions are actually made on autopilot. KAIBA WHITE: In reality, people have a lot of different things tugging at their attention and their bandwidth. Kaiba White from the consumer rights group Public Citizen says that just doesn't really happen. You know, the other issue that we're seeing is that the deregulated system assumes that consumers will fend for themselves, that they'll find an electricity plan where they won't get hosed if a big storm rolls in. You know, there have been warnings about that for years, actually, and the system broke down almost exactly like this about a decade ago. But, you know, it appears that there weren't market incentives in this market system for power providers to make sure that they were prepared to weather a massive winter storm. INSKEEP: Does this suggest that this deregulation doesn't work?ĬONNELLY: Well, it works great when the weather's good. So they were just sitting there, watching the charges on their credit cards rack up. And normally, they would be able to do that. The Marrs family spent hours trying to switch to a different company last week to find one with a more traditional fixed-rate plan. And those are the customers who are ending up with these sky-high bills. That deregulated market also allows for the sale of unusual policies like the ones the Marrses have, plans with variable rates for electricity. It is designed so that when there's a shortage of electricity, the price will go up, and power companies will have an incentive to generate more electricity. So Texas has a deregulated market for electricity. How does this even happen?ĬONNELLY: Right. I don't even necessarily know what my cost for a day is. INSKEEP: I guess you got to explain the Texas system here, because I mean, I get a utility bill. And, you know, $10,000 is a ton of money. SHANNON MARRS: It's awful, and there's nothing you can do. Shannon Marrs said it makes her sick to her stomach to think about it. During those really cold days last week, the Marrses were paying 1 or $2,000 a day for electricity. In January, they paid 257 bucks for electricity.ĬONNELLY: And as of Saturday, the family's electric bill for the month of February was $10,180.76.ĬONNELLY: During those - yeah. She lives in Frisco, which is a Dallas suburb, with her husband, Mike, and three kids. INSKEEP: What's an example of the kind of costs that people face?ĬONNELLY: Right. Christopher Connelly is with member station KERA in Dallas and joins us now. People who managed to keep their power are now paying for it. It's a side effect of last week's storm that overcame the power grid. Now think about Texas, where some people suddenly have utility bills in the thousands of dollars. Think for a moment about that famous survey suggesting that many people would struggle to pay an emergency expense of even a few hundred dollars.
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