Texas, where the free market mandates predatory behavior.
(via)Empowered by having successfully influenced a major Wall Street deal, the energy pimps will undoubtedly continue their hustle. For shareholders, the costs are beginning to add up. According to its recent report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, TXU expects a loss of $ 1.1 billion due to the plant cancellations. In addition, bank shareholders lost revenue from the proposed financing of the now-cancelled energy plants.
The biggest loser, however, will be consumers who will pay higher utility bills because access to cheap energy supplies was denied. This victory also puts a target on the proposed construction of approximately 150 coal plants nationwide.
But there’s still time on the clock. The TXU buy-out must still gain the approval of the Texas legislature. These elected officials need to assert their authority and recognize the danger of allowing utility prices and economic growth to be hustled by special interests.
For the sake of consumers and the free market, the Texas legislature must stand tall and throw both the TXU deal and the energy pimps out of the game.
Texans will not be the biggest losers in the energy game... they are the biggest losers. Since the pseudo deregulation of energy in Texas the rates have skyrocketed for the taxpayers while the same companies bilking the locals export cheaper energy to neighboring states... the same companies (Reliant/Enron) who were instrumental in the manipulation of California's 'energy crisis'.
While demanding new plants were needed to compensate for rising demand, TXU continues to refuse requests to be a good corporate citizens and pollutes populated areas with impunity. They've got most of Austin in their pockets or their payroll and ownership of the large majority of Texas' transport lines.. a deregulated monopoly. If the buyout keeps additional plants from being built close to or in smaller metropolitan areas, then it's a success, albeit interim.
A unit of Dallas-based TXU Corp. manipulated the state's wholesale power market two years ago to the tune of nearly $70 million during the summer of 2005, an independent market monitor investigation claims.
The market monitor, hired by the state Public Utility Commission to look into the matter last year, said in a report released today that TXU's wholesale arm made a profit of about $19.6 million through bidding behavior that was not competitive.
The commission had earlier said there were signs that an unnamed utility company had withheld electricity from the market during several peak usage hours in the summer of 2005 to tighten supply and therefore boost prices. The higher prices show up later in customers' electricity bills
However, until the state begins to support the residents over big business, focuses their efforts on accountability, pushes for alternatives and truly enacts legislation that frees the market to allow for energy to be purchased out of state, the declaration of a deregulated market is nothing more than a ploy built around an intent to enable predatory business practice.
(via)
Looking for a bottom line here, let's simply check the price of electricity in Texas and in our neighboring states. According to the latest federal figures, these are average residential rates (per kilowatt-hour).•Oklahoma – 7.73 cents
•Arkansas – 8.59 cents
•New Mexico – 8.69 cents
•Louisiana – 8.78 cents
•Texas – 12.15 cents
That puts our electric bills 57 percent higher than in Oklahoma and 44 percent higher than our four neighbors' average.
Very "business-friendly," wouldn't you say, suckers?
It's up to the state to approve or deny and up to our legislators to ensure that their constituents have equal access to affordable options. They also have a responsibility to demand credibility, accountability and see to it that major deals impacting the voters that eliminate shareholders in infrastructure commodities are protected. Failure to institute such provisions should be punitive.
(h/t Brandon)
Posted by kerry at March 20, 2007 02:27 AM