Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an agreement of sorts with the energy wholesaler Griddy that will essentially wipe out the electric bills for thousands of Texans who saw spot prices for electricity surge during February’s winter storm:
Texas Attorney General wipes out Griddy customers’ electric bills totaling $29.1 million.
This resolves most of the residential customer claims from the winter storm.
I will continue working with the legislature to resolve remaining claims.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 16, 2021
From the Dallas Morning News:
The action Paxton took was to release Griddy’s former customers from Griddy’s bankruptcy, which it filed for Monday in Houston. Texas won’t move forward with its state court lawsuit and investigation, and “Griddy will work with it in good faith to resolve these matters,” the attorney general said.
Paxton’s office also said it’s working with Griddy to get some “relief” for people who have already paid their bills, some of which were several thousand dollars each.
“Griddy and my office are engaged in ongoing good faith negotiations to attempt to address additional relief for those Griddy customers who have already paid their storm-related energy bills,” Paxton said in a statement.
Paxton’s office had sued Griddy “under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act on behalf of 24,000 customers who have a cumulative $29.1 million in unpaid electric bills from the week of freezing temperatures in Texas last month”:
The attorney general’s office sued Griddy under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act on behalf of 24,000 customers who have a cumulative $29.1 million in unpaid electric bills from the week of freezing temperatures in Texas last month.https://t.co/P6PtY5LZrt
— Maurice Shaw, Retweets do not mean endorsement. (@mauriceshaw) March 17, 2021
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What this means is the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) will not be able to go after consumers over the money Griddy owes:
Unless Griddy has $30M in assets — then that cost is just passed on to other customers in Texas. So this is victory? https://t.co/f6WJSk1vv0
— Matt Largey (@mattlargey) March 16, 2021
And this bailout of Griddy customers will be paid for by all the power customers who have been paying higher rates for years in exchange for protection against these price surges:
Filing bankruptcy, as they did, already did that. The cost will now be passed back through to all the power customers. https://t.co/ktaqH0wIX8
— Kevin R. Tipple (@kevinrtipple) March 16, 2021
Well, at least Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be happy?
I don’t care what Cruz said at CPAC, but I do care that it appears Texas was just a layover stop for him between Cancun and Orlando to drop a pack of water into someone’s trunk and abandon his constituents again as they get slammed with $16,000 electrical bills.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 28, 2021
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