Texas’ New Governor Plans Emergency Edict To Freeze Energy Prices Or Something

It’s cute and all, but, why? By most measures Texas is around #10 lowest cost energy prices in the country. It’s below national average at 15.91 cents per kilowatt for residential

Texas governor-elect’s plan to freeze electricity prices raises questions over legal authority

On her first day in office, Texas Democratic Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa plans to freeze residential electricity rates in response to what she described as an affordability crisis.

“On Day One as governor, I’ll freeze residential electricity rates and make corporations finally pay their fair share,” Hinojosa said in an interview with a local energy data group. She reiterated the plan in an interview with the Texas Tribune, stating, “Within an hour of taking the oath of office, I will declare a high-cost emergency in the state of Texas and issue an emergency executive order to … freeze electricity rates.”

The plan is raising concerns that such a freeze will clash with Texas’ uniquely competitive energy sector, which relies heavily on free-market choice, and that it could inadvertently create energy shortages as suppliers are prevented from adjusting their prices.

That’s the concern of Nick Loris, the president of C3 Solutions, a conservative coalition for climate solutions that focuses on energy, environment and agriculture policy.

He expects the emergency declaration will face legal challenges almost immediately from energy providers. In particular, he cast doubt on the scope of the emergency declaration.

The US average is 18.16 cents per kilowatt, so, what emergency?

“The Texas Disaster Act lets the governor declare disasters and suspend the regulatory laws and statutes that are in existence. But I think there is a high degree of skepticism, both from courts but also from state policymakers, that this warrants such a claim — and that it is such a disaster,” Loris told Fox News Digital.

Texas is a deregulated state for energy production, and very competitive, so, what’s her play here? Is this just a “I’m doing something, but, the big ole meany courts stopped me from keeping your rates the same”, or something else? Certainly, the rates have gone up over the past few years, just like a lot of states, as the population of Texas skyrocketed with all the transplants escaping California, and that so many people are using so much more electricity, while infrastructure has lagged, even in fossil fuels friendly Texas.

Does she simply want a takeover of the energy sector because Socialism?

In 1999, the state passed Senate Bill 7 — a piece of legislation that opened most of the state to retail choice, allowing customers to pick their preferred retail electric providers (REPs), beginning in 2002.

“The legislature finds that the production and sale of electricity is not a monopoly warranting regulation of rates, operations, and services and that the public interest in competitive electric markets requires that, except for transmission and distribution services and for the recovery of stranded costs, electric services and their prices should be determined by customer choices and the normal forces of competition,” the Texas Legislature wrote in the law.

Does she want control to pick and choose? Does she want to cause providers to limit production so they do not lose money? What’s the game? Simply yapping that she’s Doing Something to placate her unhinged leftist base without considering the implications? I suspect we’ll see a lot of this from Democrats in 2027, but, little will actually make it through the courts.