As Huge Winter Bills Come Due For Texas' Fraud Of A Grid, "Free-Market" GQP Sputtering In Anger

[hatrack]

EDIT

An angry backlash is building across the middle of the U.S. as states step in to help their constituents pay billions of dollars in natural-gas bills racked up during February’s freeze. While most escaped the blackouts that occurred in Texas, states from Minnesota to Kansas are having to help local utilities, businesses and homeowners cover February bills after natural-gas prices surged from around $2 per million British thermal units to as much as $1,200 in parts of the country.

Lawmakers and regulators in Minnesota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas have called for investigations into market manipulation and are exploring regulatory changes. Republican and Democratic leaders in some of the states said it may be time to reconsider whether interstate gas markets, deregulated since the 1980s, need greater federal oversight to prevent a similar economic calamity from happening again.

EDIT

Oklahoma regulators said the weeklong freeze generated as much as $5 billion in gas bills there. That has left some lawmakers in the reliably Republican state to call for further regulation of natural-gas producers, one of the most influential industries in Oklahoma. “I cannot for the life of me understand how we saw it go from $2 to $1,200 and back down to $2 in the span of the week; that’s not real,” said Garry Mize, a Republican who is chairman of the utilities committee in Oklahoma’s House of Representatives. referring to natural-gas prices. “It’s hard on a political level because you’d like to believe that free markets work all the time.”

Mr. Mize helped draft legislation signed into law in April that will allow utility companies to stretch the impact to customers over 10 years by securitizing rate payments and selling them as bonds. Without the measure, he estimated that ratepayers who normally pay an average bill of $100 a month would have seen bills for February reach around $1,900.

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https://climatecrocks.com/2021/06/28/as-texas-blackout-gas-bills-come-due-states-consider-action/#more-66824

[AllaN01Bear]

1. enron all over again

[HUAJIAO]

2. "It's hard on a political level because you'd like to believe that free markets work all the time."

Yeah, you'd like to, eh?
On a political level?
How about on a reality level.....

You ignorant piece of shit....

[Probatim]

3. Unregulated free markets worked perfectly - for the gas suppliers.

They gave customers a choice. Pay outrageous fees for natural gas or watch your kids freeze to death. It's simple supply and demand. Everyone learns this in Econ 101.

I'd be shocked if these bills went any where considering how much money suppliers give to their favorite PACs.

[Diamond_Dog]

4. Do people really believe

that deregulation of the oil and gas market means that the companies are going to lower their rates out of the goodness of their little hearts??

[multigraincracker]

5. If they get paid,

all of that money will go for stock buy backs.