Deregulation was first started by President George Bush in 1999 which stated that Texas will become a deregulated electricity market. Since then, various people have pondered about the various impacts that have followed such a decision.
Deregulation of the electricity market was aimed to introduce a sort of competitive atmosphere in the business of selling electricity. Enabling such competition allowed for a greater variety of value-added packages available for customers to browse through. Power to choose was started in Texas which allowed consumers to choose a plan that would fit them perfectly. Although, not all outcomes have been favorable as some people suggest that industry and large industrial consumers have benefited more than your normal workaday electric customer who pays rates that are greater than the national average. But is not that the same case in any industrial scheme. For such situations in 2010, the legislature’s sunset advisory commission, which was at that time evaluating the Public Utility commission proposed several changes among which it included a method that would make lodging complaints against the electric company easier.
The larger questions about the merit of deregulation of electricity have remained an excessive but important dispute. Conservative groups state that deregulation has made way for consumers to actively select a plan that would cost them the least amount of money. It has also been stated that deregulation has also allowed for some old plants to be rebuilt into newer and more efficient plants and it has also facilitated the usage of renewable energy as a clean source of electricity. On the other side, some ratepayer groups have said that deregulation has caused rates paid by ordinary Texans to more than what they would have to pay if deregulation was not present.
Steve Minick, the vice president for governmental affairs at the Texas association of business has stated that a lot of factors including the price of natural gas have been a factor in the cost of electricity. A lot of groups including both electric companies and large users of electricity like manufacturers have stated that deregulation has indeed worked but also acknowledges that not everything can run smoothly.
