Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Tuesday that more than $ 29 million in unpaid electricity bills charged during February devastating winter storm will be forgiven. The relief is part of a bankruptcy plan by Griddy Energy, the Texas electricity provider accused of charging customers thousands of dollars more.
Griddy filed for bankruptcy on Monday, becoming the third Texas power provider to do so since the February storm that left millions of state residents without power amid sub-zero temperatures. At least 57 people died as a result of the storm, according to preliminary data released by the Texas State Department of Health Services on Monday.
“My office sued Griddy Energy, according to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, to hold them accountable for the escalation of last month’s winter storm disaster, debiting huge amounts of customer accounts as Texans struggled to survive the storm” said Paxton in response to Griddy’s filing for bankruptcy.
Griddy’s plan offers “releases to approximately 24,000 former customers who owe $ 29.1 million in unpaid electricity bills,” according to Paxton. He said his office is in ongoing negotiations with the provider “to try to offer additional relief to Griddy customers who have already paid their storm-related energy bills.”
“Through the bankruptcy plan, Griddy will release all outstanding payment obligations for Texas consumers who were unable to pay their energy bills due to the high prices charged during the storm,” according to the attorney general. “Texas will slow down the state lawsuit and Civil Investigative Demand and Griddy will work with her in good faith to resolve these issues. Texas and Griddy will work in good faith to resolve relief for the Texans who have already paid.”
Negotiations over paid accounts can affect clients like 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. . It still owes more than $ 8,000 for intermittent power.
Khoury is part of a class lawsuit against Griddy, who seeks $ 1 billion in monetary relief from the company.
“Griddy accused Khoury in the middle of a disaster. She and her husband were left without power at their home from Wednesday, February 17, 2021, to Thursday, February 18, 2021,” says the complaint. She was charged $ 9,546 between February 1 and 19 – about 40 times more than her normal $ 200 to $ 250 account range, according to the lawsuit. “At the same time, Khoury hosted her parents and in-laws, who are in their 80s, during the storm. Even so, it continued to minimize energy use because of high prices, ”says the complaint.
Khoury’s lawyer, Derek Potts, a national managing partner at the Potts law firm, said Griddy’s billing violates 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 in trying to locate and recover the estimated tens of millions of dollars that have actually been withdrawn from Texas consumers. “bank accounts and credit cards during the storm event by Griddy. “
Griddy said the class action “was without merit” in a statement given to the Dallas Morning News. On its website, the company says it does not profit from high energy prices and blamed the Texas Public Utility Commission for last weekend’s astronomical increases. “PUCT (Public Utility Commission) changed the rules on Monday” when it instructed the Texas network provider to allow astronomically high energy prices, Griddy said, adding that it was “seeking relief” for its Electric Reliability Council customers of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the flow of electricity for them. ERCOT is subject to the supervision of the Public Utility Commission.
The last remaining member resigned, Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement late on Tuesday. Public Service Commission chairman Arthur D’Andrea, the only remaining member of the three-member council that regulates Texas public services, resigned at Abbott’s request, according to the governor.
“Tonight I asked for and accepted the resignation of PUC commissioner Arthur D’Andrea. I will appoint a replacement in the next few days who will be responsible for setting a new and fresh course for the agency,” says Abbott’s statement. “Texans deserve to have confidence and security in the Public Utility Commission, and this action is one of the many steps that will be taken to achieve this goal.”
Abbott has repeatedly blamed ERCOT for the power outages and called for an investigation on the board. Four members of the ERCOT board announced their own plans to resign immediately after the storm, two days later, a seventh member stepped down, the Texas Tribune reported.
In a letter to the council, the first resigning members mentioned concerns about their “council leadership outside the state”. Three of the board’s resigning members lived in other states and one lived in another country.
“We noted recent concerns about the leadership of the out-of-state board at ERCOT,” said the letter. “In order to allow state leaders the freedom to direct the future and to eliminate distractions, we are resigning the board from the end of our urgent teleconference meeting on Wednesday, February 24, 2021.”
After the seventh resignation, ERCOT spokeswoman Leslie Sopko said: “I believe he is from Texas”.
Irina Ivanova contributed to this report.