The shocking truth on electric deregulation

The Texas media have been telling viewers for years that they can switch power companies to get a better electric rate. This is true. In fact the Public Utility Commission says deregulation is working. But we did uncover a few problems with the procedure thanks to a viewer's email.

This viewer responded to a story Jeff and I produced in June. As usual, we reported that with power bills heating up, consumers can go to powertochoose.org and switch to the company with the cheapest rate.

So the viewer went ahead with the process, only to find his rates keep going up. Essentially the company that had the cheapest rates that day didn't remain that way.

This got my attention. I started to look at historical data from the PUC and noticed that companies changed positions through out the year.

Beyond that, I took four random days from this November and watched company rates jump all over the place. This was the story I originally wrote. Then the story took a new direction over night. CONTACT: Leave me a Houston or Texas media news tip | COMMENT: Click to leave your thoughts on this post here