Unfair Park from p4 bars, we wouldn’t be surprised if Abbott tries to turn Texas into a “Trump sanctuary state.” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz Cruz slammed federal law enforcement, tweeting that the FBI’s raid was “corrupt” and its action “an abuse of power.” The ju- nior senator similarly name-dropped for- mer President Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace after the exposure of his involve- ment in the Watergate scandal. Cruz also wrote that Congress needs to hold hearings and issue subpoenas to hunt down “answers.” “Dems in charge will refuse, but the American people deserve to know why Biden is using the FBI as his political enforc- ers,” he said. “Tin-pot dictators do that, but that’s not how America works.” U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson Amarillo Congressman Ronny Jackson is one of Trump’s most ardent defenders. In a tweet after the news broke, he wrote that the FBI had become an official “enemy of the people!!!” Jackson echoed that language in a tweet the next morning. “Biden is turning the FBI into his secret police,” he wrote. “His own personal weapon to SILENCE regime enemies. They hate your freedom. This administration is truly the ENEMY of the American people!!” U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert East Texas Congressman Gohmert once filed a lawsuit in an attempt to keep Trump, who’d just lost the 2020 election, in power. The conservative Texan again went to bat for the former president in a tweet. Gohmert’s written statement reeked of whataboutism and called the search a “third-world politics raid.” He also tossed around buzzwords like “dictator,” “Or- wellian” and “Marxist.” “This is an absolutely incredible move by the DOJ to pursue, harass and now invade the former President’s home, who had authority to declassify documents,” Gohmert wrote. “As we have seen with many January 6th defen- dants, the process is the punishment.” Plano State Rep. Jeff Leach Leach seems to want to have it both ways. In a July tweet, he wrote that the “nail in the coffin” for his Trump support was when Trump turned on then-Vice President Mike Pence. Leach added that Republicans needed someone new on the 2024 presiden- tial ticket. But Leach appeared to cozy back up to Trump in a tweet. “Would Clinton do this to Bush? Bush to Clinton? Obama to Bush? Or Trump to Obama? No,” the conservative politician wrote. “Because those men — for all their faults — were focused on governing. “Radicals today are obsessed with Trump & conservatives — running roughshod over our Constitution,” Leach continued. “We must defeat them.” Texas Nationalist Movement President 66 Daniel Miller Some social media users have started Unsplash Constitutional union that requires us to submit to the destruction of our sover- eignty and our inalienable rights,” he said in a tweet. “We can no longer be yoked to a ‘Banana Republic’ masquerading as a Constitutional Republic.” ▼ HEATWAVE MORE MILLIONS I ONCOR INCREASED THEIR NET INCOME BY MILLIONS BECAUSE OF THE TEXAS HEAT. BY KATE PEZZULLI t’s not the Observer’s job to tell you it’s hot. At this point, it’s not even news. What is interesting though, is how Oncor, Dallas-based and and Texas’ largest energy delivery company, increased revenue be- cause of it. According to an Aug. 4 press release, the company generated a net income of $229 million in 2022’s second quarter, which is $60 million higher than their second quar- ter income for 2021. Oncor does not sell energy to consumers; it operates the distribution lines and trans- mission towers that run through neighbor- hoods. “Texas is obviously a deregulated state, so we’re different than other parts of the coun- try where you might have a utility that both owns power plants, supplies the power lines to get the power to the customers and then sells it to them,” said Grant Cruise, Oncor communications manager. “Oncor is a strictly transmission and delivery company. We don’t have any power generating plants, we also don’t sell power to customers … Oncor made bank off of hot Texans. or a rate case, with the Public Utility Com- mission (PUC) of Texas. The PUC regulates the state’s electric, telecommunication, water and sewer utili- ties, implements legislation, and assists cus- tomers in resolving complaints. They have the ultimate say in whether Oncor can in- crease its rates. “A utility can file a request for a rate in- crease, and it will be considered by PUC staff, customer stakeholder groups who in- tervene in the case, and, ultimately, the com- mission,” said PUC Director of Communications Rich Parsons. Parson said that staff and intervening customer groups will review the request and make recommendations to the commission- ers, who then vote on granting the increase and at what rate. “The commission may adopt recommen- dations by the staff or customer groups or adopt rates based on the company’s request, but ultimately, the commission’s decisions are based on the entirety of the proceeding’s evidentiary record,” said Parsons. “The On- cor filing is moving forward according to its procedural schedule. We do not speculate on the outcome of these rate cases.” According to the press release, the rate increase, if approved, would account for an- other annual revenue increase for Oncor of approximately $251 million. Oncor is required by law to file a rate case every four years, and they haven’t had a rate increase since 2017. This rate increase for 2022, offset by an extension during the pan- daydreaming of a civil war, a concept that was trending on Twitter last week with the hashtag “#NationalDivorce.” But the state’s secession has long been a recurring wet dream for Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) President Miller. Last Tuesday, Miller tweeted a link to his organization’s website, where people can sign up to become TNM members. Later, he posted a tweet that strongly condemned the Mar-a-Lago search. The way Miller and company see it, the raid was further evidence of a broken fed- eral system. “Texas will no longer tolerate a post- we’re basically the FedEx.” In the release, Oncor’s CEO Allen Nye at- tributed the increase in income to the recent heat and the increase in consumer demand, and Cruise agreed. “It’s tied to the heat, obviously as people are using more electricity to try and stay cool,” Cruise said. “If you have a year of record set- ting temperatures for an extended period of time, you know, people using more electricity directly connects to how much money … On- cor and other electric utilities make.” But even with the record heat for con- sumers, and Oncor’s rising net income, on May 13 Oncor filed for a 4.5% rate increase, demic, was scheduled long before the record high temperatures. “This rate review is part of a regularly timed, supervised process as outlined in PUC rules, with the goal of continuing to provide our customers with affordable, safe and reliable service, while also meeting the growing energy needs across our service area,” said Connie Piloto, spokeswoman for Oncor’s communications department. She said that with the increase, they are trying to recover the amount they invested in the grid in order to bring electricity to the public, or their transmission distribution as- sets, and Cruise noted that the summer tem- peratures did not play a role in it. Piloto said that they have invested more than $10 billion in the grid, and have a $15 bil- lion improvement plan, which is needed in part due to the continued growth in the area. “We’ve seen more than 70% increase in new transmission interconnections just in the second quarter, which is an all-time re- cord,” Piloto said. “Since 2017 … we’ve added nearly 10,000 miles of new and rebuilt transmission and distribution lines, and have had more than nearly 355,000 new cus- tomer connections.” Nonprofit consumer advocacy group Pub- lic Citizen, whose Texas office supports reduc- ing electricity demand and affordable utility bills for Texans, believes there is a lot of room for improvement in the Texas electric grid. “The widespread power outages during Winter Storm Uri, and the risk of more during this brutally hot summer, make it clear that the grid is far from secure,” wrote Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office of Public Citizen. “The grid is simply not ready for many more summers like this one or another extreme weather event like Uri, both of which are more likely because of climate change.” Oncor does have ideas about sustainability, published in their yearly corporate report, that include delivering cleaner energy and advanc- ing other energy efficient opportunities. As far as Winter Storm Uri goes, and others that might happen in the future, they state in the report that “While Oncor does not own, operate, or control grid- connected power generation plants or facilities, the company has been working to identify innovative trans- mission and distribution solutions that could minimize the impacts of, or even avoid, third- party generation-shortfall events such as oc- curred in Winter Storm Uri in the future.” But while Oncor does not generate power for the grid or sell it directly to customers, there is a charge on customer’s bills from Oncor for transmission and delivery, or “T and D.” “The rate increase has to do with that charge that’s on everybody’s bill that’s con- nected. That is related to their T and D charges,” Cruise said. “That’s where that rate increase comes in … it’s the cost that our customers pay for the transmission and de- livery of their power.” Piloto explained how this rate increase, if approved at 4.2%, would affect an average residential customer who uses about 1,300 kilowatts hours per month. “Let’s say that … customer has a retail electric plan that is 11 cents,” said Piloto. “The rate would be adjusted to 11.46 cents, so it would mean a cost increase of about $6.02 per month, or about 20 cents a day.” MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 AUGUST 18–24, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com
