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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

Regulators, Mount Up

Representative Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth) is proposing legislation which calls for the undoing of the deregulation from the 76th session. Representative Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) is reportedly filing similar legislation, but the text of that bill is as yet unavailable.

The argument for deregulation, besides the usual shrill calls for government to decrease in size, is usually that the market will assert itself and businesses will be forced to become more competitive with the pricing of the services they provide, which results in lower prices for you, the consumer. This is rarely the case.

It is certainly not the case with Texas utilities, and TXU isn't entirely to blame, although if that's how you roll I won't hold it against you. According to the Galveston Daily News:

For most customers in the deregulated market, rates have gone up between 67 percent and 114 percent, far higher than the national average.

As to whether anything will actually happen, it is difficult to say. It certainly wouldn't be a bad thing to vote for in the eyes of the voters, but the energy lobby may have a thing or two (or three) to say about it.

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