Allowing consumers to choose their electricity supply companies has failed to lower rates for home customers, according to recommendations given to the Legislature on Wednesday.
Are customers losing out with energy choice?
It appears it is time to pounce on energy deregulation again; naysayers have been inaccurately using the Enron boogeyman for the last 20 years but have now found a new patsy: Texas.
The Wall Street Journal has published two [1] articles [2] that take a shot at retail energy choice. These articles claim millions, or in the case of Texas billions, of dollars were “lost” by customers that chose retail suppliers over the utility default rate. But the comparisons made are not just apples to oranges but in some cases apples to automobiles. Robust apples-to-apples analyses have shown instead that electricity choice has brought about great benefits to customers throughout the country, including innovative forms of retail products while lowering rates for comparable retail products.