The_Conquistador does not answer questions, but will grant you an answer, even though your pitiful performance in this thread does not deserve it. Yes my bill has become less. Thanks for asking. Now a question for you, MadMax: Will you take the time to research this topic, form an informed view, and then return to the BBS with your findings? Right now, you do not understand the issue. Hopefully you can at least recognize that.
Disclaimer - I work for a competitive energy supplier... There are definitely some flaws with the way that Texas and other markets have deregulated, but it's not quite so black and white as "electric de-regulation is bad for consumers". Yes, prices for electricity have gone up... but they've gone up for plenty of other commodities as well, so you can't just look at in a vacuum. A big difference is that the prices for many of the other commodities had not been capped at unrealistically low values. I'll agree that it was stupid for proponents to make promises about lowering rates for customers within a period of time - there are far too many variables that can reduce savings. New, diverse energy products have developed much more rapidly now that you have different firms competing for consumers' business. There are plenty of consumers - particularly small businesses up to the largest industrial users - who have benefitted quite a bit from deregulation. The array of products - whether fixed price, indexed (either to MCPE or to natural gas or another commodity), or some hybrid structure - is much more sophisticated than what was available under regulated utilities. You also have new renewable energy options that weren't previously available... and demand response (again at the C&I level) allows consumers to receive payments for shifting usage to non-peak periods.
Here's what I understand about it: 1. Deregulation was granted to Texans with all sorts of promises about lower bills. 2. Prices have not gone down 3. The price of inputs that affect the price have fluctuated. 4. We're still paying a lot more than we were before dereg 5. We're still paying significantly more for electricity than other states who use the same inputs we do. 6. I'm better looking than you are and I read many lengthy novels.
I'm conflicted on the issue, but this one thing that I think needs to be pointed out. There are infrastructure barriers that make Texas a somewhat separate market from the neighboring states it is being compared to. That makes comparisons more complicated because a prevailing market price for wholesale electricity might be different in Oklahoma than in Texas because of supply and demand realities that can't equalize across the barriers. We do pay higher prices, but is it because retail was deregulated or because wholesale was deregulated or because of some economics around fuel sources, etc? I'm in the industry but haven't worked too much on that side of it. I can tell you, however, that the retailers aren't the ones making money hand over fist.
im in the industry and the cost of capital has gone up for everyone. Also imo the issue is the wholesale market because before the economic collaspe margins were really thin and it was very competitive right up through july
It could be (talking out of my ass here) that deregulation of the wholesale has left Texas more exposed to the speculative energy bubble, kinda like California was in their crisis, but on a much smaller scale.
You noticed, Max? Another example of the mad policies of Gov. Good Hair and the GOP Lege. If Perry has his way, we're about to turn "our" noses up at hundreds of millions of Federal dollars for CHIP. Doesn't matter to Perry that we have the highest percentage of uninsured children in the country. Why? Because he doesn't give a damn.
I would like proof, in the form of scanned and posted statements, that the twins have achieved lower electricity rates while most Texans have seen these rates rise. Given their lack of cred, this is not too much to ask. It is fair to ask this, while merely asking MadMax for funny images, due to MadMax's alleged complete ignorance and incompetence.
Working for a retailer, I can tell you that in the summer and fall we raised some people's rates up to the neighborhood of 21 cents per kwh. The market rate now is more like 13 cents. If you are on a variable rate that climbed up toward 20 cents and your REP has not dropped you back to around 13 cents, you must switch providers (to Gexa, preferably). kpsta and pgabriel, who do you work for?
I work for a large marketer that only serves C&I customers in Texas, you better not be working down the hall from me.
It worked so great in California we just had to have it here. I'm waiting for our rolling blackouts next summer.
Texas was deregulated before California. And, the crisis happened to California instead of Texas because California was less deregulated -- a mismatch of government mandate and market forces created a pricing defect to be exploited. But, I think your point is still valid -- we're at some risk of some savvy actors exploiting the system to reap abnormal profits at the expense of the Texas consumer.
