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| Volunteers are preparing to distribute drinking water to residents in Houston, Texas, USA, which was damaged by a cold wave on the 20th (local time). © AFP=News1 |
Faced with an extreme cold, Texas residents in the United States are infuriated by being charged with an electricity tax bomb.
According to AFP news agency on the 21st (local time), mayor Sylvester Turner in Houston told CBS broadcast’Face the Nation’ that “the electricity bill is to be borne by the state of Texas.” Individual residents who do not have it should not pay for electricity.
“This weather event was predictable and preventable in advance,” he said. “Since a long time ago, the power grid in Texas has been vulnerable to extreme weather.”
In Texas, over 70 people died and millions suffered from power and water loss as a result of the cold wave of Chooak in the southern and central parts of the United States earlier this week.
In addition, some customers who subscribed to the variable rate plan received a bill of electricity bills that skyrocketed, and suffered even more from the shock.
According to a web service (PowerOutage.us) that reports power outages across the United States, about 31,000 homes in Texas are currently out of power. In addition, some residents received bills of electricity bills exceeding 16,000 dollars (about 17.7 million won).
U.S. President Joe Biden declared a massive emergency disaster in most of Texas on the 20th and promised financial and administrative assistance.
Republican Congressman Michael McCull (Texas) told CNN that “President Biden’s declaration of an emergency disaster could serve as a basis for providing money for residents to pay their expensive electricity bills.”
He stressed that the financial damage caused by the cold wave is likely to be equivalent to the time of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, when it reached $125 billion.
Federal government and Texas government officials also demanded an investigation into the details of the power crisis amid the cold wave.
Democratic Senator Tina Smith (Minnesota) called for an investigation by the federal government and pointed out that natural gas prices have soared 100-fold because utility companies have left the responsibility of increasing costs to customers.