The story goes, “Texas makes up for the higher electricity rates they charge during cold snaps because the power rates are very low during the rest of the year.” This is supposed to justify Texas’ power grid secession-that they’re the only state that’s separated from the national power grid system. The truth is that a lot of states connected to the power grid charge less than Texas. For example, in January 2019 twenty states charged a lower rate for electricity than Texas: Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Some of these states are a lot colder than Texas and they suffered from the recent Arctic freeze, but they didn't charge astronomical rates. Last Monday “The spot price of wholesale electricity on the Texas power grid spiked more than 10,000%.” Texas was already charging more than about 40% of our nation, according to geographic space; so, it’s wrong to force their citizens to accept a 10,000% increase in the price of power every time the weather is cold. They are exploiting their citizens and harming every business in the ERCOT grid other than a few power companies.
Two things should happen. First, there should be an educational campaign showing Texans that many other states pay less electricity than they do, and this will stop the influence of the fake news that Texans pay lower rates than everybody else. Second, after the educational campaign Texans should be offered the chance to voice their opinion in a poll asking whether they think Texas should connect to the national power grid system so that they can always have reliable energy and decent prices throughout the year. The parasitic energy companies should be exposed for their anti-business cold-hearted management of an essential service, and the GOP government should be accountable for allowing energy companies to exploit Texans.