Texas is still recovering from the blizzard that caused the state’s power grid to collapse, leaving millions of people without electricity during icy weather. For days, millions of Texans lived without power, adequate warmth, accessible roads, or the empathy of certain elected officials. (I’m looking at your senator Ted Cruz and former Colorado Mayor Tim Boyd.)
Now, President Joe Biden has declared a major disaster in the state and “made a wider range of federal aid available to help those affected by the severe winter storm,” the Washington Post reported. According to the Post, the statement “allows individuals and business owners in Texas to apply for federal emergency assistance, including grants for temporary housing and home repairs, cheap loans to cover uninsured property losses and other repair programs,” and hopefully the assistance also extends to Texans who now face electricity bills up to $ 10,000 and even higher as a result of storms nobody was ready for.
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From NBC News:
While the Texas power grid collapsed during a historic winter storm, Jose Del Rio of Haltom City, near Dallas-Fort Worth, saw the electricity bill on a vacant two-bedroom home he was trying to sell slowly rise over the past two years. . weeks. The bill is usually between $ 125 and $ 150 per month. But his account has already been charged about $ 630 this month – and he still owes $ 2,600.
“If the worst is the worst, I can put it on a credit card or figure something out,” Del Rio said. Nobody lives in that house. All the lights are off. But I have the air at 60 because I do not want the pipes to freeze. ”
When he contacted Griddy, his electrical company, they advised him to call from supplier, Del Rio said.
Griddy’s prices are controlled by the market and are therefore vulnerable to sudden fluctuations in demand. With the extreme weather, energy consumption skyrocketed, raising wholesale prices to more than $ 9,000 per megawatt-hour – compared to the seasonal average of $ 50 per megawatt-hour.
In light of rising costs, Griddy advises consumers to temporarily switch electricity providers to save their bills.
According to NBC, about 90 percent of the electricity in Texas is provided by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) – which has become much controversy because many people seem to think that Texas has its own non-federally regulated power grid. has something to do with the disaster – but state residents inside and outside the ERCOT service area reported electric bills that are as much as twice what they normally pay, and for some the increase was much higher.
According to The Hill, one Dallas resident told reporters that he typically pays about $ 660 in electric bills for his home, guesthouse and office, but he said his latest power bills exceed $ 17,000 due to the storm. Another family in Dallas said they saw the electric bill for their three-bedroom home reach about $ 10,000 over a few days.
A Texas Legal Services Center attorney, Keegan Warren-Clem, told NBC that there are “limited options available in the absence of state-level action to provide consistent relief,” such as legal aid programs and federal energy assistance programs, many of which low-income households. But Warren-Clem also noted that it is unclear whether Texas laws protecting residents from utility companies that exploit natural disasters for profit also apply to people receiving these ridiculously high electricity bills due to the recent storm.
What happened to millions of Texans – including the dozens who died due to disaster-related reasons – was a total disaster. Federal aid and any other kind of aid available cannot come fast enough. Hopefully, measures will be taken in Texas that will ensure that such a thing never happens again.