Dig Deeper Texas

Unbelievable!

Many consumers call energy deregulation a failure | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Houston residential consumers use an average of 1,130 kilowatt hours a month. Bills for that much power would range from $125.43 to $163.85 based on rates available in Houston at the end of September for a one-year, fixed-rate plan. The average rate available in Houston would produce a monthly bill of $142.95.

The same amount of electricity would cost $97.41 in San Antonio and $105.32 in Austin, both served by municipally owned utilities.

Deregulation supporters say its success should not be judged just on price, and point to the variety of electricity service options available to customers. But they have been slow to take advantage of the choices.

I really wish the Chronicle had some provided some direct quotes from the deregulation supporters. Can you name any industry where the calls for deregulation weren’t predominately based on price?

Not only do we pay lower rates as CPS customers, unlike TXU, CPS is working to build cleaner coal plants.

Of the 1,307 coal plants in the county, San Antonio’s Deely 1 and Deely 2 are in the top 21 percent as far as cleanliness. New scrubbers, to be installed by 2013, will make them even cleaner. The city’s other coal plant, Spruce 1, is in the top two percent. The addition of Spruce 2 will mean that CPS has increased its energy production by 52 percent in recent years with no net gain in emissions.

“Once we have the Spruce 2 unit up and running, we’ll have the cleanest fleet of coal plants in the country,” says Scott Smith, environmental planning and compliance director for CPS Energy. “And still be able to provide the cheapest electricity among the 20 largest cities in the U.S.”

Scene In SA Monthly, October 2007, pg 36

Now I know that Roddy Stinson thinks that CPS serves only to waste tax payers’ money in San Antonio, but I don’t think he would be any happier living in a deregulated market. Do you really want to pay higher prices for more service options?

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