From Kim Jarrett @ Texas Vox: The effect of deregulation has been harmful to Texans of all social backgrounds and economic levels across the state. It has turned the idea of competition on its head—people have a choice now, but it’s not cheaper. Essentially, deregulation has replaced forcing people to buy cheaply from public sources with forcing people to pay higher prices from a private company of their choosing. >> Continue Reading
Electricity deregulation in Texas: High cost problems and one solution
July 24, 2008 by Maureen Backman
3 Responses
Follow Our Tweets!
- Rally today: "Policies the @USChamber has fought for have hurt the rise of the green industry, of small businesses." http://t.co/reMXG9XEzK 1 hour ago
- RT @uschamberwatch: Young Guillermo telling the U.S. Chamber to quit fighting for policies that hurt schools and poor people. http://t.co/v… 2 hours ago
- RT @LuddoftheFuture: "These policies the @USChamber has fought for have hurt the rise of the green industry, of small businesses." http://t… 3 hours ago
Support Our Work
Socialize With Us
Categories
Visit Our Other Sites
Public Citizen Read our reports and publications
Eyes on Trade Challenging globalization
Citizen Energy Fighting for a sustainable future
Law & Policy Justice for consumers
Texas Vox Activism from the Lone Star state
Worst Pills An independent pharma watchdog
Recent Comments
Flickr Photos
More PhotosTags
Archives
Meta
Earlier this week I received a notice from my power company, Idaho Power saying that they were going to increase electric rates by 9.9%. After going off like a rocket, I calmed down and did some research.
It turns out that Idaho Power is a subsidiary of a holding company named IDACORP. IDACORP’S other business is “affordable housing”. I looked into their news archives and found that they started that business in 1998 allegedly using unregulated income from a “green technologies” business. “Coincidently”, they sold the green technologies business in 2006. The veil on this one is rather thin. The 2005 Energy bill gutted PUHCA so they didn’t need to the cover of the “green technologies” business anymore.
In their explanation of the rate hike, they said the following:
“Our long-range planning process forecasts nearly 13,000 new customers annually for the next 20 years. Each of them means an investment in infrastructure that provides them the power”.
A couple of paragraphs before that, they say referring to a chart of the different rates for different customers, “Idaho Power’s specific rate proposals for customer groups seeks to align more closely customers rates with the costs of providing them electrical service”.
Of course the consumer rate is the highest except for “small general service” which is probably the temporary hookups during construction – just guessing.
So what they are doing is using their existing customers to subsidize their affordable housing construction business plus they are getting tax credits on their income tax for doing it.
It’s a racket.
good call, information is key.How can we get the word out?Go to Lou Dobbs.com or call 1877-55-DOBBS between the hours of 3-6 pm eastern standard time for an INDEPENDANT PERSPECTIVE
[...] public links >> deregulation Electricity deregulation in Texas: High cost problems and one solution Saved by timofeji on Sat 11-10-2008 Answering the Libertarians and Their Lies Saved by beach on [...]