Thread by @GregCasar

⚡️💧Austin Energy & Water will *not* charge ridiculous utility rates from this disaster. In fact, tomorrow we're giving $10M in utility earnings back to struggling customers.

That's because our utilities are publicly owned. They serve the people rather than profit. Details 👇

In 1890, Austinites were fed up with high prices from private electric/water companies, so they voted to create public utilities.

Now, utility rates are set by City Council, & all earnings benefit our residents, not shareholders.

History of Austin Energy austinenergy.com/wcm/connect/ae…

With this disaster, many Austinites lost a week of wages. On top of the pandemic, that can make it hard to cover your bills, even at normal rates.

So we suspended late fees & cut-offs, and we're sending $millions of assistance for bills.
Need help? Go to austinbillhelp.com

Now let's talk Austin Water. This month, you'll only be charged your normal amount, because employees couldn't read meters during the storms. If you used a smaller amount of water (b/c you conserved or lost💧service), then next month your bill will be lowered accordingly.

Some Austin Water customers may be worried about very high bills because the freeze broke pipes that leak water. We're voting tomorrow to make sure everyone's OK. The chart below shows we'll turn a $510 water bill into a $44 water bill (& less for low-customers/"CAP")

We aren't facing $9,300 electric bills in Austin. That's because our public utilities are here to serve the public. Thanks to @austinenergy and @AustinWater for bringing forward utility bill relief in this crisis, instead of ridiculously high rates.

texastribune.org/2021/02/23/tex…

More context: it’s important that (while Austin Energy’s electric generation did suffer in the storms) overall, Austin generated more energy than we were consuming during the disaster. That ⚡️generation kept customer costs down while helping the rest of TX get power back online.