{"id":154790,"date":"2021-02-20T23:42:19","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T04:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=154790"},"modified":"2021-02-20T23:58:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T04:58:34","slug":"abbott-says-texas-residents-with-utility-bill-spikes-should-be-protected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/abbott-says-texas-residents-with-utility-bill-spikes-should-be-protected\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbott Says Texas Residents With Utility Bill Spikes Should Be Protected"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fabbott-says-texas-residents-with-utility-bill-spikes-should-be-protected%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=154790&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Texas.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>Governor Gregg Abbott said Saturday that Texas has a responsibility to its residents to protect them from \u201cskyrocketing energy bills,\u201d remarks that come amidst reports that some Texans have been slapped with four- or even five-figure bills for their electricity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe have a responsibility to protect Texans from spikes in their energy bills that are a result of the severe winter weather and power outages,\u201d said Abbott, after meeting with legislators Saturday to discuss prices. \u201cToday\u2019s meeting was productive, and I applaud Republican and Democrat members of the Legislature for putting aside partisan politics to work together on this challenge. We are moving quickly to alleviate this problem and will continue to work collaboratively throughout this week on solutions to help Texas families and ensure they do not get stuck with skyrocketing energy bills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Many of the Texans who have been reporting sky-high energy bills use Griddy, a utility company that charges a $10 monthly fee and, in exchange, sells electricity to consumers at wholesale prices, reports<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/20\/us\/texas-storm-electric-bills.html\"><span>The New York Times<\/span><\/a><span>. While this typically results in cheaper energy, it resulted in a dramatic price jump when energy became scarce and the Public Utilities Commission increased the maximum cost of energy to $9 per kilowatt-hour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI don\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve used $6,700 of electricity in the last decade,\u201d DeAndr\u00e9 Upshaw, a Griddy customer whose utility bill exceeded $6,700 as a result of the winter weather event, told The New York Times. \u201cThat\u2019s not a cost that any reasonable person would have to pay for five days of intermittent electric service being used at the bare minimum.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cMy savings is gone,\u201d said Scott Willoughby, a 63-year-old retired veteran and Griddy customer who was reportedly charged $16,752. Willoughby told the Times he nearly drained his savings to pay the bill, commenting: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing I can do about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/abc13.com\/griddy-power-retailer-electricity-prices-texas-price-protection-grid\/10350120\/#:~:text=In%20a%20rare%20move%20Sunday,switch%20to%20a%20different%20provider.&amp;text=Griddy%20told%20customers%2C%20for%20those,they%20have%20an%20unpaid%20bill.\"><span>ABC-13<\/span><\/a><span>, Griddy went as far as to urge all of its customers to switch to a different provider last Sunday, but some customers had trouble finding a new one or were told by other companies that they weren\u2019t taking new customers at this time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The New York Times reports that Griddy \u201cappeared to try to shift anger toward the Public Utilities Commission\u201d in a statement on Thursday, which reads: \u201cWe intend to fight this for, and alongside, our customers for equity and accountability \u2013 to reveal why such price increases were allowed to happen as millions of Texans went without power.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>According to the governor\u2019s office, Abbott has discussed with state legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, \u201cthe need to quickly calculate the total cost of these energy bills and how the state can help reduce this burden.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/biden-issues-disaster-declaration-for-texas-amidst-severe-winter-weather\">Biden Issues Disaster Declaration For Texas Amidst Severe Winter&nbsp;Weather<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/texas-electric-bills-soar-some-up-to-10000-as-deep-freeze-begins-to-wane\">Texas Electric Bills Soar, Some Up To $10,000, As Deep Freeze Begins To&nbsp;Wane<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em><span>member<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Governor Gregg Abbott said Saturday that Texas has a responsibility to its residents to protect them from \u201cskyrocketing energy bills,\u201d remarks that come amidst reports that some Texans have been &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2181599,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Texas.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Abbott Says Texas Residents With Utility Bill Spikes Should Be Protected","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Texas.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Abbott Says Texas Residents With Utility Bill Spikes Should Be Protected","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2181599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}