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Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) held a press conference in San Antonio on Sunday to address ongoing efforts to assist citizens impacted by last week’s historic winter storm.
The governor said he’ll protect Texans from “skyrocketing energy bills that resulted from a temporary spike in the energy market.”
Meeting with the Public Utility Commission on Sunday, Abbott and state leaders signed two orders.
One order directs energy providers to temporarily stop disconnecting customers from power or water for not paying their bills due to high prices.
Public Utility Commission Chair DeAnn Walker said the other order prevents companies from sending invoices or bill estimates to customers “until we work through issues of how we are going to financially manage the situation we are in.”
“Disconnect for non pays cannot occur on a Sunday and that’s why we’re acting today at this hour… trying to stop any from occurring tomorrow,” Walker explained before the orders were signed.
Touching on the subject of skyrocketing power bills, Governor Abbott said, “Texans who have suffered through days of freezing cold without power should not be subjected to skyrocketing energy bills due to a spike in the energy market.”
The state government hopes to “provide relief and support to struggling Texans.”
But, should Texas foot the bill?
A Biden administration executive order forced ERCOT to throttle its energy output by forcing it to comply with environmental green energy standards while knowing full well Texans could freeze to death in their homes with zero electricity as temperatures plunged into the single digits.
The February 14th order admits ERCOT requested the federal government allow them to provide enough energy for Texans amid the historic winter storm.
“On February 14, 2021, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the Independent System Operator (ISO) whose service territory includes 90 percent of the electric customers in the state of Texas, filed a Request for Emergency Order UnderSection 202(c) of the Federal Power Act (Application) with the United States Department of Energy (Department) ‘to preserve the reliability of bulk electric power system,’” the order reads.
Additionally, the order instructed an “incremental amount of restricted capacity” of energy to be sold to ERCOT at “a price no lower than $1,500/MWh.”
That is an increase of over 6,000 percent over February 2020 prices of $18.20.
According to The New York Times, one Texas resident tallied up a $16,752 electric bill.
Meanwhile, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blamed the state for trying to be independent of the federal government, saying, “Texas thought it could go it alone and built a system that ignored climate change. It was not what’s called resilient, and now Texas is paying the price. I hope they learned a lesson.”
Read the Biden executive order:
Also, watch Alex Jones bullhorn Governor Abbott in an attempt to convince him the right thing to do now is hold the Biden Administration accountable for leaving Texans in the freezing cold.