Ask the PUC to reverse its $2.5 billion electricity tax on Texans!

DeAnn T. Walker (Chair)
512-936-7015 [email protected]		 Arthur C. D’Andrea
512-936-7005 [email protected]		 Shelly Botkin
512-936-7025
[email protected]

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

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

Shelly Botkin
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 PUC should make renewable energy companies pony up their fair share of the costs they impose on consumers because of more than $30 billion of renewable energy subsidies.
  • In January, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) held an open meeting on at which the commissioners directed its staff—without a vote–to change a pricing rule that would impose an electricity “tax” on Texas consumers as high as $2.5 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 $2.5 billion payout from consumers, generators suggest they might not keep enough generation plants operating to keep the lights on for Texans.
  • The PUC commissioners are relying on the testimony of the generators and a report from consultants who claim that Texas’ competitive electricity market can’t work to justify their decision 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 the more than $36 billion of renewable energy subsidies expected in Texas from 2006 through 2029. These subsidies have increased electricity costs and reduced reliability because of the unreliable nature of wind and solar energy.
  • The PUC should reverse its decision on the electricity tax and instead require renewable energy generators to pay for the costs they impose on Texas consumers because of the renewable energy subsidies.

Ask the PUC to reverse its $2.5 billion electricity tax on Texans!