The Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) overcharged Texans, indirectly through power companies, by over $16 Billion and says it will do nothing about it.
Texans screwed by their government again
The PUC held a meeting recently. They had to decide what to do about the overcharging they did during the Texas Electric Grid collapse.
ABC13 reported the following.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The state’s regulator of electric utilities rejected a proposal to reverse $16 billion in power pricing during the week of the winter storm that caused power outages across the state.
Potomac Economics, the independent market monitor for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees ERCOT, wrote in a letter to the Public Utility Commission that ERCOT kept market prices for power too high for nearly two more days after widespread outages ended late Feb. 17. It should have reset the prices the following day.
PUC chairman Arthur D’Andrea said the proposal would not accomplish what many people believed it would.
“It looks like ‘Oh no, it’s just money that generators got, and if you reverse it, it would go to the consumers,’ but that’s very simplistic, and that’s not how it works,” D’Andrea said. “There are a lot of consumers that could be hurt by repricing.”
The markets worked as they should. In other words, they are subject to all manipulation, theft, and abuse. That is why one wants strong regulations. That is the only way to protect the citizens from a fraud-prone market system in areas like energy and healthcare.