The Public Utility Commission of Texas wants to impose a $4 billion a year electricity tax on Texas consumers and give it to electricity generators and Wall Street bankers. Generators and regulators claim this is needed because "Texas is on course for a power reliability crisis, with the potential for regular rolling blackouts in just a few short years."
This claim is false. In fact, Texas' electricity market is as reliable as any market in the United States. It has provided Texas with an affordable, reliable supply of electricity for over a decade. The truth is some generators are struggling with low profits, so they want Texas consumers to bail them out.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom has an ongoing series of papers and commentaries examining the debate over the reliability of the Texas electricity market and explaining that competition, not regulation and higher taxes, is the path to reliability.
Commentaries and presentations on this issue include "ERCOT's Capacity Market: What if it Already Exists?," "If it Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It, "Free Market Ensures Reliable Power Supply," "Texas' Wind Lobby Spins an Epic Tale," and "PUC should make the right call." More of these can be found in our Thinking Economically series of posts covering this topic.
Here are the Foundation's most recent research papers examining the Texas electricity market:
Debunking the Myth: Texas is Not Running out of Electricity–The Generators
Texas' Competitive Capacity Market
Electricity in Texas: Markets, not Manipulation
The Reliable Texas Electricity Market: Resource Adequacy Hype Doesn't Fit the Facts
Competition is Working in the Texas Electricity Market
Does Competitive Electricity Require Capacity Markets? The Texas Experience; a summary of the paper is also available
Capacity Markets Represent a Bad Bargain for Texas Consumers
A Texas Capacity Market: The Push for Subsidies
There and Back Again: The High Transition Costs of Electricity Regulation
Q&A on the Texas Electricity Market
All of our research on electricity markets may be found here. Press releases on the Texas electricity market may be found on the Foundation's press page.