The power came back on for most Texans after a horrifying week brought to you by liberalism where millions of Lone Star state residents saw extended outages when the Texas power grid couldn’t hold up to harsh winter storms.
As if that wasn’t enough now a second crisis is hitting many Texans in the form of gigantic electric bills some say they can’t possibly in a million years be able to pay. So far, the highest noted bill for one resident came in at $17,000, for the month as of Thursday.
Jason Wheeler, a reporter for KHOU-TV has been covering the problems Texans are facing who are under variable or indexed (by market rate) payment plans for their power bills. Most electric customer’s bills are set at a fixed rate, but the variable-type plans fluctuate. Normally, customers would take advantage of rates going down with the risk that rates could slightly go up. Well, for them the costs went up and there was nothing slight about it.
Wheeler reported that just over the past few days, the wholesale cost of one megawatt of power went from around $50 to $9,000, and that caused residential customers with non-fixed plans to get skyrocketing bills far that go beyond anything they could ever afford.
After asking for Texans who received crazy bills to send them to him, Wheeler said they just poured in. One person showed they paid just $88 last month for their electric bill and just received a bill close to $2,550 for a 990 sq ft apartment. Someone else said his daughter’s electric bill was usually around $50 a month and her bill just shot up close to $1,900.
Ty Williams who pays for electricity for his home, a guest house, and an office normally totals at about $600. This time his bill went to a whopping $17,000.
“How in the world can anyone pay that?” Williams told KHOU. “I mean you go from a couple hundred dollars a month…there’s absolutely no way. It makes no sense.”
In the meantime, other power companies are refusing to take on new customers for people who want to switch as they are trying to work on servicing their current customers during the chaos going on in the state.
A lot of customers are angry that they are facing these sky-high electric bills when they haven’t had power on in their homes for the past week. Some folks are asking how the racked-up bills aren’t considered price gouging. I would say because they were on that variable or index rate plan and that’s what the cost went up to when the ice hit the windmill. See what I did there?
Without electricity, there was no heat for a lot of homes, and in the kind of frozen weather Texas received recently a lot of homes’ water pipes burst to cause all kinds of damage. Disaster recovery services are not cheap either.
One person responded to Wheeler’s tweet about the situation.
“Talk about kicking us when we’re down… I’m afraid to see what my bill is going to be. So freaking mad about this $*it. I’m already afraid to see what they’re gonna do with my water bill after having to keep our taps dripping for almost a week now.”
Talk about kicking us when we're down… I'm afraid to see what my bill is going to be. So freaking mad about this shit. I'm already afraid to see what they're gonna do with my water bill after having to keep our taps dripping for almost a week now.
— Angela Smith (@AngelaHerring3) February 19, 2021
Another user retweeted her.
“Glad I’m not the only one terrified about the water bill… this is going to be a mess.”
Glad I'm not the only one terrified about the water bill… this is going to be a mess.
— Shanzillaaa (@ScreamForTerror) February 19, 2021
More had things to say about what they’re going through.
“When my power came back on Wed the heater was blowing cold air then the fire sprinkler pipe burst the next day. I have renters insurance but what are my options? My apt is not getting warmed and kitchen living room ruined. Also will my bill electric skyrocket?”
When my power came back on Wed the heater was blowing cold air then the fire sprinkler pipe burst the next day. I have renters insurance but what are my options? My apt is not getting warmed and kitchen living room ruined. Also will my bill electric skyrocket?
— Rho Jo (@xenasg1) February 19, 2021
This is a friend in Houston area. pic.twitter.com/GveoxIt6w2
— Laura Read (@LauraLRead) February 19, 2021
Rich is a conservative, syndicated opinion writer and owner of MAGA-Chat.com. He writes about politics, culture, liberty, and faith.
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