AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation today released Competition is Working in the Texas Electricity Market, an Energy Perspective examining how Texans have fared since competition was introduced into most of the Texas electricity market over 15 years ago.
“Texans are paying less for electricity today in real dollars than they did in 2001, while at the same time U.S. consumers are paying more,” said Bill Peacock, the Foundation’s Vice President of Research and Director of the Center for Economic Freedom. “Most Texans also have far more choice in the marketplace. Competition is the one factor that sets Texas apart from the rest of the country that would make this possible.”
Peacock adds, “Out of concerns over reliability and profitability, regulators and generators want to reduce competition and adopt a capacity market in Texas. There is no evidence, however, that existing capacity markets operated throughout the U.S. are any more reliable than Texas’ energy-only market-as witnessed by last week’s rolling blackouts and curtailments in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania. But there is plenty of evidence that capacity markets make electricity more expensive and will result in billions of dollars a year in subsidies for generators paid for by Texas consumers.”
This paper is the second in a series of weekly papers the Center for Economic Freedom will produce examining the debate over the reliability of Texas’ electricity market.
Bill Peacock is the vice president of research and director of the Center for Economic Freedom with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
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