Texas Pays the Price of the Culture War

[Make7]

9. Multiple analyses have found Texans paid more after deregulating their electrical grid.

Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation

Competition in the electricity-supply business promised reliable power at a more affordable cost

Feb. 24, 2021

Texas’s deregulated electricity market, which was supposed to provide reliable power at a lower price, left millions in the dark last week. For two decades, its customers have paid more for electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a Wall Street Journal analysis has found.

Nearly 20 years ago, Texas shifted from using full-service regulated utilities to generate power and deliver it to consumers. The state deregulated power generation, creating the system that failed last week. And it required nearly 60% of consumers to buy their electricity from one of many retail power companies, rather than a local utility.

Those deregulated Texas residential consumers paid $28 billion more for their power since 2004 than they would have paid at the rates charged to the customers of the state’s traditional utilities, according to the Journal’s analysis of data from the federal Energy Information Administration.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-electric-bills-were-28-billion-higher-under-deregulation-11614162780

An older one:

Texas consumers pay more in deregulated electricity markets, study says

June 8, 2016

The average cost of electricity for Texans in Houston and other parts of the state with deregulated power markets exceeded the national average in 2014 for the first time in three years, according to a report released Wednesday.

The 85 percent of Texans who live in deregulated service areas also paid about 15 percent more than residents in communities with municipal utilities, such as San Antonio and Austin, according to the annual report by the nonprofit Texas Coalition for Affordable Power, which represents more than 165 Texas cities and political subdivisions across the state.

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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Texas-consumers-pay-more-in-deregulated-7972017.php