Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday that more than $ 29 million will be billed for unpaid electricity in February devastating winter storm will be forgiven. The exemption is part of a bankruptcy plan of Griddy Energy, the Texas electricity supplier accused of overcharging customers with thousands of dollars.
Griddy filed for bankruptcy Monday, making it the third largest energy supplier in Texas since the February storm, which left millions of residents without power amid freezing temperatures. At least 57 people have died in the storm, according to preliminary data released Monday by the Texas State Department of Health.
“My office sued Griddy Energy under the Texas Misleading Business Practices Act to hold them accountable for the escalation of last month’s winter storm disaster, debiting huge sums from customers’ accounts as Texans struggled to survive. storm, “Paxton said in response to Griddy’s filing for bankruptcy.
Griddy’s plan provides “releases for approximately 24,000 former customers who have unpaid $ 29.1 million in electricity bills,” according to Paxton. He said his office is in ongoing negotiations with the supplier “to try to address an additional exemption for those Griddy customers who have already paid their storm-related energy bills”.
“Through the bankruptcy plan, Griddy will release all outstanding payment obligations for those Texas consumers who were unable to pay their energy bills due to high prices charged during the storm,” according to the attorney general. “Texas will slow down the state court process, and the civil investigation request and Griddy will work with it in good faith to resolve these issues. Texas and Griddy will work in good faith to address the relief of Texans who have already paid.”
Negotiations on paid bills could affect customers such as Lisa Khoury, a resident of Chambers County in Houston, who says Griddy withdrew $ 1,200 from his bank account through an automatic payment system before stopping payment through his bank. She still owes more than $ 8,000 for intermittent power.
Khoury is part of a collective process against Griddy seeking a $ 1 billion monetary exemption from the company.
“Griddy accused Khoury in the middle of a disaster. She and her husband remained largely powerless in their home from Wednesday, February 17, 2021, until Thursday, February 18, 2021,” the complaint reads. She was charged $ 9,546 between February 1 and 19 – about 40 times the usual range of $ 200 to $ 250 bills, according to the lawsuit. “At the same time, Khoury hosted his parents and in-laws, who are 80 years old, during the storm. Even then, he continued to minimize any energy consumption due to high prices,” the complaint reads.
Khoury’s lawyer, Derek Potts, the national administrative partner of the law firm Potts, said Griddy’s billing applies to Texas consumer protection laws – and thousands of electricity users are likely to be affected.
Potts said his company is now “in the process of reviewing the Attorney General’s press release” and, in the meantime, “continues to move forward to try to locate and recover the estimated tens of millions of dollars that were actually taken.” from Texas consumers bank accounts and credit cards during the storm by Griddy. “
Griddy said the class action lawsuit was “without merit” in a statement to the Dallas Morning News. On its website, the company says it is not taking advantage of high electricity prices and blamed the Texas Public Utilities Commission for last weekend’s astronomical hikes. “PUCT (Public Utility Commission) changed the rules Monday,” when it instructed the Texas grid provider to allow high astronomical energy prices, Griddy said, adding that it is “seeking help” for its customers from the Texas Electric Reliability Council ( ERCOT), which manages the flow of electricity to them. ERCOT is subject to supervision by the Public Utilities Commission.
The last remaining member resigned, Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Tuesday night. The chairman of the Utilities Commission, Arthur D’Andrea, the only remaining member of the three-seat council that regulates utilities in Texas, has dropped Abbott’s request, according to the governor.
“Tonight, I have requested and accepted the resignation of PUC Commissioner Arthur D’Andrea. I will appoint a replacement in the coming days who will be responsible for setting a new and fresh course for the agency,” Abbott’s statement said. “Texans deserve to trust the Public Utility Commission, and this is one of many steps that will be taken to achieve this goal.”
Abbott has repeatedly accused ERCOT of power outages and called for an inquiry into the council. Four members of the ERCOT board announced others intends to resign Immediately after the storm, two days later, a seventh member resigned, the Texas Tribune reported.
In a letter to the board, the first resigning members cited concerns about “their leadership outside the board”. Three of the resigned board members lived in other states and one lived in another country.
“I have noticed recent concerns about the extra-state leadership of the council at ERCOT,” the letter said. “In order to allow state leaders a free hand in the future and to eliminate distractions, we are effectively resigning from the board of directors after our emergency council teleconference meeting was postponed to Wednesday, February 24, 2021.”
After his seventh resignation, ERCOT spokeswoman Leslie Sopko said, “I think he’s from Texas.”
Irina Ivanova contributed to this report.