The Energy Alliance, an arm of the Texas Business Coalition, in a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton, is demanding explanations why the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of Texas refuses to release information on why it imposed an estimated $3.6 billion hike in electricity rates.

“Last year PUC commissioners added $3.6 billion to the wholesale price of electricity,” Bill Peacock, policy director of the Energy Alliance, said on the organization’s webpage. “The same thing could be happening this year but the PUC will not release information in its possession that might inform the public how much electricity prices are being increased.”

The question is are electricity rates in Texas increasing despite record low oil and gas prices in the state because of federal subsidies for “renewable energy” – natural energy sources that are constantly replenished such as solar power or wind? 

Bill Peacock | File Photo

A report by the Energy Alliance also alleges that renewable energy producers in Texas are undercutting competitors trying to get rid of them and gain a monopoly by selling energy below cost to gain market share, called “predatory pricing.”

The PUC rejected Peacock’s request for public information on the rate increases.

To inform the public about the costs the Energy Alliance submitted a request under the Public Information Act (PIA) to the PUC, stating that the act allows public acquisition of information about the affairs of government and public officials.

Officials of the PUC responded that they had relevant documentary information but refused to release it, telling the Energy Alliance that a “work privilege” clause under the PIA allowed the information to be withheld.      

It will be up to Paxton, a Republican based in Plano, to decide if the information requested can be released to the public.

The PUC is the governing body that regulates rates and services from public utilities including electricity providers.

The report said commissioners at the PUC of Texas reacted to subsidies for renewable energy sources by creating their own subsidy, an electricity tax for Texans, based on administrative pricing called an “Operating Reserve Demand Curve” (ORDC).

The money collected from the ORDC helps fund energy generators, including renewable, fossil fuel or nuclear power.

Peabody said he thought higher electricity rates in Texas were a matter of public record under the Freedom of Information Act laws and the state’s PIA.

“I asked for the data so people could see how much the government is artificially increasing the price of electricity,” Peacock said in a Texas Business Coalition report. “The PUC denied the request for the information because they believe it is excepted from release under the PIA and they have asked the attorney general to issue an opinion on it. It’s up to the attorney general to determine whether or not this information is publicly available.”

Peacock said Texans are looking at higher electricity bills and alleged that the PUC doesn’t want them to find out how much more they will pay for electricity because of the unwillingness of Texas lawmakers to challenge “renewable energy.”

The price of electricity is being artificially increased, Peacock maintained, because regulators are afraid there are not enough reliable sources of electricity other than natural gas.

“There's two ways to deal with it,” he said in the TBC report. “You can get rid of the cause which are the renewable subsidies, or you can pay generators new subsidies in the hopes that they'll build natural gas generation.”

The report said wind, solar, nuclear and fossil fuel sources have received federal subsidies of between $13 billion and $37 billion since 2010, with wind and solar receiving up to 75 times greater than the more traditional forms of oil, gas, coal and nuclear, according to a report by the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Peacock said the PUC provided no easy-to-understand information to the public showing how the ORDC was increasing their rates. He did his own calculations based on what information was available and came up with a figure of $3.6 billion for last year.

“The PUC never put that information out directly,” Peacock said. “They didn't do that until about October or November of last year. So it's after the fact because most of the costs for the ORDC came in August and September, and Texans couldn't find out in real-time how much the ORDC was costing them.”

Peacock said new information could be obtained later this year.

“The PUC is making it very difficult for Texans to find out how much the electricity tax imposed by the PUC is costing them,” he said.

Peacock added that the rate increase is the public’s right to know.

“What could be more aligned with the PIA’s purpose than information in the possession of the PUC and collected by a state contractor paid with public money that explains to the public the costs of decisions made and policies adopted by public officials of the state of Texas?” he asked.

A report in the Lone Star Standard said the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is the biggest electricity market in Texas operating a grid that covers roughly 75% of the state. The Energy Alliance has been studying the impact of renewable power generators in the alleged undercutting of competitors' rates.