{"id":53886,"date":"2021-02-24T21:51:43","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T01:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=53886"},"modified":"2021-02-24T21:53:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T01:53:51","slug":"53886","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=53886","title":{"rendered":"This was a deliberate plot to bankrupt as many residents of Texas as possible."},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Texas resident has nearly $17,000 deducted from bank account by energy company following winter storm<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>&#8216;Griddy&#8217; energy company said payments can be made in installments with no other imminent solutions<\/h3>\n<p>By Nikolas Lanum | Fox News<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_53887\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53887\" class=\"wp-image-53887 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-1-2-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-1-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-1-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-1-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-1-2.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-53887\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scott Willoughby had nearly $17,000 removed from his account for electricity surcharges caused by \u2018unregulated\u2019 Texas power grid.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"speakable\">A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/southwest\/texas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Texas<\/a>\u00a0resident had nearly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/some-texans-electricity-bills-skyrocket-as-high-as-17000-during-winter-storm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$17,000<\/a>\u00a0automatically deducted from his bank account after Griddy, a Texas Energy Company, imposed surcharges on state residents following a devastating\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/texas-winter-storm-power-outage-snow-temperatures\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">winter storm<\/a> and subsequent electrical blackout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Scott Willoughby, who joined\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/shows\/americas-newsroom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;America\u2019s Newsroom&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday to discuss the issue, explained that there is no cap on Texas\u2019 unregulated power grids which surged average household electricity costs from 8 to 10 cents per\u00a0kilowatt-hour to $900 per\u00a0kilowatt-hour.<\/p>\n<p>Willoughby, who had the money in his account to pay the bill, expressed concern that hundreds of thousands of Texas residents will not be able to pay for crippling electrical costs, which average at around $5,000 per household over the course of the seven-day blackout.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For a lot of people that [bill] will impact them devastatingly,&#8221; Willoughby said. &#8220;No food on the table for their kids, no rent or house payments or car payments \u2013and there\u2019s no recourse because the money\u2019s gone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, Willoughby remained hopeful that residents will be reimbursed for the excess charges.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas resident said that the state legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott called an emergency meeting Saturday to look into ways that they can help lessen the charges incurred on homeowners and renters.<\/p>\n<p>Griddy said in a statement on its website Thursday, &#8220;We know you are angry and so are we. P&#8212;&#8211;, in fact.&#8221; The company explained wholesale prices shot up because the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) took control of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state\u2019s power grid, Monday and raised the wholesale price to $9 per kilowatt-hour at least until the grid could manage the demand caused by the winter storm.<\/p>\n<p>The company said that\u2019s around 300 times higher than the normal wholesale price, and even though 99% of homes had electricity by Thursday evening, PUCT left the pricing in place.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The market is supposed to set the prices, not political appointees,&#8221; the company said. &#8220;We intend to fight this for, and alongside, our customers for equity and accountability \u2013 to reveal why such price increases were allowed to happen as millions of Texans went without power.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Griddy told FOX 4 that bill payments can be made in installments but didn&#8217;t offer any other immediate solutions to customers&#8217; excessive bills.<\/p>\n<p><i>Fox News&#8217; Bri Stimson contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/texas-resident-nearly-17000-dollar-power-bill-winter-storm\">https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/texas-resident-nearly-17000-dollar-power-bill-winter-storm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas resident has nearly $17,000 deducted from bank account by energy company following winter storm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}