Young: Read your bill by candlelight

Electric bills from Central Texas’ leading provider have gone up 80 percent since power companies were allowed to compete six years ago.

William Field wishes he could get that break. He opened his TXU bill this month and found that it had doubled
No additional twinkly exterior lights in December (none, actually.) No Rudolph’s red nose. Just what one uses to heat and light a home in the country outside of Mart.

TXU officials say Field’s dilemma, and those of about 42,000 other customers in certain East and Central Texas communities, is the result of an anomaly and is not a snapshot of things throughout its customer base.

That doesn’t mean electric rates haven’t taken a jump for everyone. In the fall TXU’s rates went up 12 percent, and again this month they went up 12 percent. Competitors in the state have generally tracked that.

Waco Tribune-Herald