{"id":158234,"date":"2021-02-21T22:45:19","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T03:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=158234"},"modified":"2021-02-21T22:58:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T03:58:28","slug":"texans-cant-lose-power-for-nonpayment-orders-utilities-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texans-cant-lose-power-for-nonpayment-orders-utilities-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans Can\u2019t Lose Power For Nonpayment, Orders Utilities Commission"},"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\">18<\/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%2Ftexans-cant-lose-power-for-nonpayment-orders-utilities-commission%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=158234&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-Power.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>The Public Utilities Commission of Texas will stop utilities from cutting off customers from the power supply, even if they don\u2019t pay their electricity bill, in response to the sky-high electricity rates that some Texans have reported amidst the recent winter weather event.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At a meeting on Sunday evening, the Public Utilities Commission of Texas passed emergency orders that prohibit investor-owned utility companies from cutting off power access to customers for not paying their electricity bills. The state\u2019s utility commission also \u201curged retail electric providers to delay invoicing for residential and small commercial electricity customers, including invoices with estimated meter reads.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">In an emergency open meeting tonight, PUC commissioners issued a series of orders intended to protect Texas electricity customers while state leaders consider solutions for the financial aftershocks of the winter storm grid event. Read more here: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uchQccJUTi\">https:\/\/t.co\/uchQccJUTi<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2gYf2HSpaS\">pic.twitter.com\/2gYf2HSpaS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 PUC of Texas (@PUCTX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PUCTX\/status\/1363655589151309827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 22, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cOur absolute top priority as a commission and a state is protecting electricity customers from the devastating effects of a storm that already affected their delivery of power,\u201d<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.puc.texas.gov\/agency\/resources\/pubs\/news\/2021\/PUCTX-REL-COLD21-022121-EOM.pdf\"><span>said<\/span><\/a> <span>PUC Chairman DeAnn Walker in a statement. \u201cThe order and directives are intended to be temporary, likely through the end of this week, to address the potential financial impacts that are especially challenging during this extremely difficult time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Governor Greg Abbott said Saturday that Texas had a responsibility to protect residents from energy bill spikes that resulted from the recent sub-freezing temperatures, which led to a massive power shortage across the states last week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe 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 said Abbott in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In recent days, reports have emerged of Texans facing four- and even five-figure utility bills in response to the recent weather event. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/20\/us\/texas-storm-electric-bills.html\">The New York Times,<\/a> many of these residents were subscribed to a service called Griddy, a utility that sells customers power at wholesale prices for a small monthly fee. While these customers typically receive cheap energy, the exact opposite happened when energy became scarce in Texas and the Public Utilities Commission increased the maximum cost of energy to $9 per kilowatt-hour. (The average U.S. residential utility customer used 877 kilowatt-hours per month in 2019, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/tools\/faqs\/faq.php?id=97&#038;t=3#:~:text=How%20much%20electricity%20does%20an,about%20877%20kWh%20per%20month.\">U.S. Energy Information Administration<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>ABC News <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.&#038;text=Griddy%20told%20customers%2C%20for%20those,they%20have%20an%20unpaid%20bill.\">reports<\/a> that Griddy went so far as to urge its 29,000 customers to switch to a different provider last Sunday. The New York Times reports that Griddy \u201cappeared to try to shift anger\u201d toward the utility commission in a statement Thursday, saying: \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<\/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\u00a0Weather<\/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>The Public Utilities Commission of Texas will stop utilities from cutting off customers from the power supply, even if they don\u2019t pay their electricity bill, in response to the sky-high &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2273905,"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-Power.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Texans Can\u2019t Lose Power For Nonpayment, Orders Utilities Commission","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158234","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-Power.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Texans Can\u2019t Lose Power For Nonpayment, Orders Utilities Commission","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158234","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=158234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2273905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}