Contact The Commissioners

Ask the Public Utility Commission (PUC) NOT to impose a $4 billion a year electricity tax on Texans!

DeAnn T. Walker (Chair)
512-936-7015
[email protected]

ArthurC. D’Andrea
512-936-7005
[email protected]

ShellyBotkin
512-936-7025
[email protected]

Instead, ask them to make renewable energy companies pony up their fair share of the costs they impose on consumers.

• The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) is holding an open meeting on Friday, December 7 at which the commissioners might make changes to a pricing rule that would impose an electricity “tax” on Texas consumers as high as $4 billion a year.
• Electricity generators and wind industry representatives asked the PUC in October to adopt the electricity tax because they claim aren’t making enough money. 
• If they don’t get the $4 billion payout from consumers, generators suggest they might not keep enough generation plants operating to keep the lights on for Texans.
• The generators and the PUC commissioners are relying on a report from consultants who claim that Texas’ competitive electricity market can’t work and therefore the government has to step in to solve the problem.
• Of course, that’s not the case. The PUC, generators, and consultants were saying the exact same thing in 2013—but it never came to pass.
• The truth is that Texas’ electricity market is the most competitive market in the world and has provided Texans with an affordable, reliable supply of electricity for almost 20 years.
• The market does face some problems today, but government is the cause of the problems, not the solution.
• Specifically, the problems are caused by excessive regulation and by more than $15 billion of renewable energy subsidies in Texas since 2005 that have increased electricity costs and reduced reliability because of the unreliable nature of wind and solar energy.
• There are other options that the PUC is considering. Whatever they choose, it should NOT include any increase in the price of electricity—$1 billion or even $500 million is too much. How much we pay for electricity is for the market, not the commissioners, to decide.

Please call before December 7th!