WSJ: Texas Power Bills $28B Higher Under Deregulation

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Nearly 20 years ago, Texas shifted from using full-service regulated utilities to generate power and deliver it to consumers. The state deregulated power generation, creating the system that failed last week. And it required nearly 60% of consumers to buy their electricity from one of many retail power companies, rather than a local utility.

Those deregulated Texas residential consumers paid $28 billion more for their power since 2004 than they would have paid at the rates charged to the customers of the state’s traditional utilities, according to the Journal’s analysis of data from the federal Energy Information Administration.

Read the full article.

When Texas deregulated power generation—creating the system that failed last week—it required 60% of consumers to buy power from retail providers, rather than a local utility. Those consumers paid $28B more since 2004 than the utilities’ rates, WSJ finds. https://t.co/b6vrj3EqVC

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) February 24, 2021