Texas: Electricty

Many of my republican buddies continue to defend the high cost of electricity deregulation by blaming the failure on the fluctuating cost of natural gas. Unfortunately the argument doesn't hold water, but they really don't seem to care. Maybe this will help. Here is a comparison between what we had pre-deregulation and what we have now.

Pre-deregulation:
Only one company sold electricity, in our area it was Houston Lighting and Power. HLP also generated the electricity. They maintain the "grid" and provided service to consumers.

• Consumers would sign up with HLP
• Consumers would pay about 8 cents a kWh
• When they moved, consumers would cancel their service.