After Texas’ recent catastrophic storm that left millions of people literally freezing without power, it’s not clear that Texan politicians, you know, get it. Senator Ted Cruz — he of the ridiculously out-of-touch, unwise Cancun vacation — is busy fuming over leaked texts that got he and his wife, Heidi, busted on a more telling level. And Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who is already not terribly popular for his most notorious COVID-19-based declaration last year (that elderly people are willing to sacrifice their lives to save the U.S. economy) is stepping in it, too.
Patrick appeared on Fox News to discuss Texas’ deregulated power grid on a general note, and the conversation inevitably turned toward reports of astronomical power bills received by Texas residents. In some cases, these have been savings-draining bills (and worse) that have been up to $17,000, according to the Washington Post. Patrick wanted everyone to know that he’s seen these reports, and this happens because, in Texas, “you can choose your energy plan and most people have a fixed rate. If they had a fixed rate per kilowatt hour, their rates aren’t going up.” Patrick stresses that he’s going to try (in the case of people receiving ridiculously large bills) to “figure that out,” but in the meantime, people need to “read the fine print.” Via Raw Story:
“But the people who are getting those big bills are people who gambled on a very, very low rate. But I’ve told those folks, do not panic. We are going to figure that out.”
“But going forward, people need to read the fine print in those kinds of bills and we may even end that type of variable plan because people were surprised.”
“Read the fine print” probably isn’t helping anyone who had their utility bills set on auto-draft, and it’s not reasonable to expect people to understand the “gamble” made when utility bills have never been, you know, $17,000 for a single-family home before last week. There’s gonna be some backlash to Patrick’s comments, but hopefully, he’ll actually make good on being able to “figure that out” for residents.
(Via Raw Story)